; and I don't have no trouble with
it; the minister, he saws it and splits it and chops it, and then when
all's done he brings it in, and he puts it on. All I have to do is to
get my ashes. I did think, when I first come, and the minister he told
me he calculated to burn wood in his room, I did think I should give
up. 'Why sir,' says I, 'it'll take a load o' wood a day, to fill that
ere chimney; and I hate to see a chimney standin' empty with two or
three sticks a makin' believe have a fire in the bottom of it.
Besides,' says I, 'stoves is a sight cleaner and nicer, Mr. Richmond,
and they don't smoke nor nothin', and they're always ready.' 'I'll take
care of the fire,' says he, 'if you'll take care of the ashes.' Well,
it had to be; but I declare I thought I should have enough to do to
take care of the ashes; a-flyin' over everything in the world as they
would, and nobody but my two hands to dust with; but I do believe the
minister's wood burns quieter than other folks', and somehow it don't
fly nor smoke nor nothin', and the room keeps decent."

"Your whole house is as neat as a pin. But you have no children there
to put it out of order, Miss Redwood."

"Guess we do," said the minister's housekeeper quietly; "there ain't
any sort o' thing in the village but the minister has it in there by
turns. There ain't any sort o' shoes as walks, not to speak of boots,
that don't go over my carpets and floors; little and big, and brushed
and unbrushed. I tell you, Mis' Englefield, they're goin' in between
them two doors all the week long."

"I don't know how you manage them, I'm sure."

"Well, _I_ don't," said the housekeeper. "The back is fitted to the
burden, they say; and I always _did_ pray that if I had work to do, I
might be able to do it; and I always was, somehow. And it's a
first-rate place to go and warm your feet, when the minister is out,"
she added after a pause.

"What?" said Mrs. Englefield, laughing.

"The minister's fire, to be sure, that I was talkin' about. Of course,
I have to go in to see it's safe, when he ain't there; and sometimes I
think it's cheaper to sit down and watch it than to be always runnin'."

"Mr. Richmond was a lucky man when he got you for a housekeeper," said
Mrs. Englefield.

"Well, I don't know," said Miss Redwood, contemplatively, with rather a
sweet look on her old face. "I 'spose I might as well say I was a lucky
woman when I got his house to keep. It come all by chance, too, yo