ve to get a boat whether I can afford it or not, I'm afraid.
It'll be worse when hot weather comes, and there'll always be the need
of going over to the village for something or other."

"A boat," cried Eyebright, clapping her hands "Oh, papa, that would be
splendid. I can learn to row it my own self, can't I? It'll be as nice
as a carriage of our own,--nicer, for we shan't have to catch the
horse, or feed him either. Now, papa, let me carry the basket, and oh,
do come quick. I want to show you how beautifully I have done your
bedroom."

Papa liked the bedroom very much. He was glad to be saved the expense
and delay of plastering, only he said he was afraid he should always
be late to breakfast, because he should want to lie in bed and study
his picture-gallery, which joke delighted Eyebright highly.

It was several days before she had time to attend to her own papering,
for there was a great deal else to do,--boxes to unpack, places to
settle, and outside work to begin. Mr. Bright hired a man for one week
to plow and plant and split wood. After that, he thought he could keep
things in running order by himself. He had been brought up on a farm,
but years of disuse had made him stiff and awkward at such labor, and
he found the work harder than he had expected. Eyebright was glad to
see the big woodpile grow. It had a cosey look to her, and gradually
the house was beginning to look cosey too. The kitchen, with its strip
of carpet and easy-chairs and desk, made quite a comfortable
sitting-room. Eyebright kept a glass of wild roses or buttercups or
white daisies always on the table. She set up a garden of her own,
too, after a while, and raised some balsams and "Johnny-jump-ups" from
seeds which Mr. Downs gave her, and some golden-brown coreopsis. As
for the housekeeping, it fared better than could have been expected
with only a little girl of thirteen to look after things. Once a week,
a woman came from the village for the day (and half a dollar), did the
washing and part of the ironing, roasted a joint of meat if there was
one to roast, made a batch of pies, perhaps, or a pan of gingerbread,
and scoured the pots and pans and the kitchen floor. This lightened
the work for the next seven days, and left Eyebright only vegetables
and little things to cook, and the ordinary cleaning, bed-making, and
dusting to do, which she managed very well on the whole, though
sometimes she got extremely tired, and wished for Wealthy's str