ite best to have Lucas drive them to Hillcrest or
not.

"You got a trunk, ma'am?" asked the long-legged youth, as the old lady
hopped youthfully into the buckboard, and 'Phemie lifted in the heavy
carpet-bag.

"No, I haven't. This is no fashionable boarding house I'm going to, I
s'pose?" she added, eyeing 'Phemie sternly.

"Oh, no, ma'am!" returned the girl.

"Then I've got enough with me in this bag, and on my back, to last me a
fortnight. If I like, I'll send for something more, then."

She certainly knew her own mind, this old lady. 'Phemie had first thought
her to be near the three-score-and-ten mark; but every moment she seemed
to get younger. Her face was wrinkled, but they were fine wrinkles, and
her coloring made her look like a withered russet apple. Out of this
golden-brown countenance the blue eyes sparkled in a really wonderful way.

"But I don't care," thought 'Phemie, as they clattered out of town. "Crazy
or not, if she can pay her board she's so much help. Let the ball keep
on rolling. It's getting bigger and bigger. Perhaps we _shall_ have a
houseful at Hillcrest, after all."

CHAPTER XVII

THE RUNAWAY GRANDMOTHER

But 'Phemie was immensely curious about this strange little old lady
who was dressed so oddly, yet who apparently came from the wealthiest
section of the city of Easthampton. The young girl could not bring herself
to ask questions of their visitor--let Lyddy do that, if she thought
it necessary. But, as it chanced, up to a certain point Mrs. Castle was
quite open of speech and free to communicate information about herself.

As soon as they had got out of town she turned to 'Phemie and said:

"I expect you think I'm as queer as Dick's hat-band, Euphemia? I am quite
sure you never saw a person like me before?"

"Why--Mrs. Castle--not _just_ like you," admitted the embarrassed 'Phemie.

"I expect not! Well, I presume there are other old women, who are
grandmothers, and have got all tangled up in these new-fangled notions
that women have--Laws' sake! I might as well tell you right off that I've
run away!"

"Run away?" gasped 'Phemie, with a vision of keepers from an asylum coming
to Hillcrest to take away their new boarder.

"That's exactly what I have done! None of my folks know where I have
gone. I just wrote a note, telling them not to look for me, and that I was
going back to old-fashioned times, if I could find 'em. Then I got this
bag out of the cupboard--I'd kept i