xcept the
horses, that was not acutely awake and supremely busy. Even the hens
and geese, scratching and squawking about the garden, seemed to know
that something unusual was in progress, and gathered about the door in
excited groups. Inside the house there was a tremendous clatter;
dishes rattled, feet ran hither and thither, voices called frantically.
Every few moments a woman would dart out of the doorway, sending a
startled whirl of chickens before her, deposit something in the back of
the vehicle, and dash back again.

There seemed to be but one man on the premises, a big,
benevolent-looking fellow, whose placid face wore an unaccustomed
expression of nervous tension. He came stumbling out of the house, and
walked abstractedly around the horses. He was making strange motions
with his head, strongly indicative of a tendency to strangulation, and
ever and anon he clutched his white collar and looked toward the house
with an air of desperation. He made three aimless pilgrimages around
the equipage and then paused, and addressed the goose and gander that
had been following him: "We'll miss that train as sure as blazes," he
remarked, stonily.

A slim little woman, in a faded lilac gown that matched her fading
beauty, came staggering down the steps with a heavy basket. The big
man put out one brawny arm and lifted it, without an effort, into the
back of the vehicle. "We'll miss that train, Arabella, just as sure as
blazes," he repeated.

The sound partially awoke the young man on the front seat. He turned
and contemplated the basket with an injured air. "What in thunder are
they taking a set of dishes for, Arabella?" he asked, wearily.

"It's jist a basket o' things Hannah put up. She's afraid the orphan
might get hungry on the road home; and besides, she wanted to take some
cookies an' cheese to Jake's folks in town."

The man was making another circuit of the buggy, followed closely by
Isaac and Rebekah, the pet goose and gander. They came to a standstill
in front of the steps, and he raised his face to the morning skies and
shouted, as though invoking some higher power, "Hannah! Hannah! Are
ye 'most ready?"

A woman's face shot out between the starched lace curtains of an
upstairs window. It was a perfectly circular face, framed in thin,
fair hair, which was parted in the middle, and brushed down so smooth
and shiny that it looked like a coat of dull yellow paint. The face
had the same good-humo