g it. It was but a few months since Mary had been there,
yet it seemed ever so much more. She felt so much older than on those
Christmas holidays. When the store of Hamilton and Company came in sight
she sank down on the back seat in order not to be seen. She knew her
uncles were, in all probability, there at the store, and she wished to
see Isaiah and talk with him before meeting them.

Isaiah was in the kitchen by the cookstove when she opened the door. He
turned, saw her, and stood petrified. Mary entered and closed the door
behind her. By that time Mr. Chase had recovered sufficiently from his
ossification to speak.

"Eh--eh--by time!" he gasped. "I snum if it ain't you!"

Mary nodded. "Isaiah," she asked quickly, "are you alone? Are my uncles,
both of them, at the store?"

But the cook and steward had not yet completely got over the effect of
the surprise. He still stared at her.

"It IS you, ain't it!" he stammered. "I--I--by time, I do believe you've
come home, same as I asked you to."

"Of course I've come home. How in the world could I be here if I
hadn't? DON'T stare at me like that, with your mouth open like a--like a
codfish. Tell me, are Uncle Shad and Uncle Zoeth at the store?"

"Eh--Yes, I cal'late they be. Ain't neither of 'em come home to dinner
yet. I'm expectin' one of 'em 'most any minute. I'll run up and fetch
'em. Say! How in the nation did you get here this time of day?"

"I shall tell you by and by. No, I don't want you to get my uncles. I
want to talk with you alone first. Now, Isaiah, sit down! Sit down
in that chair. I want you to tell me just how bad things are. Tell me
everything, all you know about it, and don't try to make the situation
better than it is. And please HURRY!"

Isaiah, bewildered but obedient, sat down. The command to hurry had the
effect of making him so nervous that, although he talked enough to have
described the most complicated situation, his ideas were badly snarled
and Mary had to keep interrupting in order to untangle them. And, after
all, what he had to tell was not very definite. Business was bad at the
store; that was plain to everyone in town. "All hands" were trading
at the new stores where prices were lower, stocks bigger and more
up-to-date, and selling methods far, far in advance of those of Hamilton
and Company.

"About the only customers that stick by us," declared Isaiah, "are folks
like 'Rastus Young and the rest of the deadbeats. THEY wouldn't