th time that week. Brookmeadow houses were famous for
their wonderful old doorways, with carved lintels, and this was not
surpassed by any of them.

Its owner's contemplation was cut short by the far-off whir of the
trolley, sounding clearly through the still morning. Miss Lyndesay
walked quickly along the curving road to the Common where she was to
receive her guests. Reaching the long narrow green, where a few cows
nibbled placidly as in the days when a green in the center of the
village was a necessary defensive measure, she walked idly up and down.
The straggling road under the great elms passed the plain white
meeting-house, dating from 1813, the Academy with its belfry, the little
general store and post-office combined, and wound out of sight between
dignified old houses, "like Aunt Abigail's--mine now," she corrected her
thought happily. No one was in sight. Up the road came the trolley,
jogging comfortably along. It stopped at the Common and its two
passengers almost fell into the arms that waited to receive them.

"O-eeeeee!" sighed Hannah, getting as close to Miss Lyndesay as she
could on one side, while Frieda did the same on the other with a similar
ejaculation.

"Two blue girls this time!" exclaimed Miss Lyndesay. "That is a very
becoming suit, Frieda," and then forestalling any answer, for she had
known of Frau Lange's letter to Mrs. Eldred and had guessed that Frieda
would not take altogether kindly to the new clothes, she inquired of
Hannah as to the health of her father and mother.

"They're all right," answered Hannah briefly. "And I am so glad to be
here! Isn't it just the dearest, sleepiest place you ever saw in all
your life?"

"Is it your first visit here?" asked Miss Lyndesay. "I supposed you knew
these villages by heart."

"I don't," confessed Hannah. "I go to school all winter, and in the
summer we go to the shore, and we haven't any aunts or grandmothers or
things like that living around here, so I don't see places like this
except in passing through them."

"Well, you have a sort of aunt and grandmother combined living in
Brookmeadow now, and I shall expect you to visit her often. How does it
seem to you, Frieda?"

"It's bigger than I thought it would be," answered Frieda. "Hannah said
it was a _Dorf_. I thought there would be only two or three houses,
and many little huts all close together, but we passed many houses."

"It is a good thing for you to see a New England village," sai