nd while your clothes dry."

She led the way back to a tiny but very neat cottage, with flowers
blooming in the door-yard and a well-tended truck-garden in the rear.
Broad hay-fields stretched on either side, but only two little boys were
visible, tossing the hay awkwardly with pitchforks almost bigger than
they were themselves.

The woman left them standing for a minute on the back porch, and then
came out to them, bearing a cake of soap, a towel, and a pair of
overalls and shirt, which, although immaculately clean, bore many
patches and darns, and were deeply creased, as though they had been laid
away a long time.

"Take these down to the barn." She handed them to Jim. "You'll find a
spigot there, and cold water's best for egg-stains. I left some rags in
the empty box-stall that you can use to clean your shoes, and then, if
you'll give me your clothes that you've got on now, I'll soak them and
get them out while the sun's high; corduroy takes a long time to dry."

When Jim had expressed his gratitude and departed for the barn, the
woman led Lou into the kitchen, and, providing her also with clean
garments, she dragged a wash-tub out on the porch.

"I--if you'll let me, I'd like to wash my own things and Jim's." Lou
appeared shyly in the door in a gown several sizes too large for her.
"He'd like it, too, I think, and he can help with the hayin' till the
things git dried out enough, so's we kin go on."

"Oh, would he?" the woman asked quickly. "I'd pay him well if he's
looking for work; I can't get any hands, though I've tried, and the hay
is rotting for want of being turned. I didn't think I'd seen you two
around here before, but I've known old Mr. Weeble always."

"You mean that--that with the egg-wagon? He was givin' us a lift into
Riverburgh; we're just traveling through," Lou added shortly.

"Did he pick you up back near his place?" At Lou's nod the woman
exclaimed: "Then you two haven't had a bite of dinner! You put your
things to soak and I'll go right in the house and get you up a little
something; it's past two."

Lou started to protest, but the woman disappeared into the kitchen, and
Jim appeared from the barn. He was attired in a shirt which strained at
his broad shoulders, and overalls which barely reached his shoe-tops.

The girl noticed something else also as he turned for a moment to look
toward the field where the little boys were so valiantly at work; a
red-leather note-book, which she had ne