f Mrs. Hunt's
white-boarded, green-shuttered abode. It was set back a few
feet from the side-walk, but a brick wall on each side shut out
any glimpse of the flower garden, and the iron railing leading
up from the flight of steps gave the place an air unlike the
rest of the village houses. Upon the top step Dorothy Robbins
stood a few moments before she rang the bell. She cast an upward
glance at the windows first; the shutters were all bowed and
silence reigned everywhere. She wondered what was behind the
brick wall, and if the inmates of the house would look as
forbidding and inhospitable as the house itself. She knew
the Otways had a little granddaughter and half looked to see
the child hanging on the gate or skipping down the path as she
approached the house. The door-bell clanged solemnly and presently
a sedate, middle-aged woman came to the door.

"Is Mrs. Otway at home?" asked Miss Dorothy.

"No, ma'am, she ain't," was the reply given most ungraciously.
"She's to a missionary society or a temperance meeting or something,
and he's gone with her."

"Is no one at home?"

"I'm here, and Marian's somewhere about, I guess. Was you
calculatin' to show goods or solicit anythin'? We hain't no
call for dress-makers' charts, and we don't want to subscribe
to no cook-books, I'm cook-book enough myself."

Dorothy smiled. "Oh, no. I don't make my living that way," she
answered cheerfully. "Perhaps I'd better see the little girl,
Miss----" she added after a few moments' thought.

"Hepzibah Toothacre is my name," remarked the gaunt woman as she
turned away leaving the young lady standing on the step.

Dorothy made a wry face. "Toothacre or some kind of acher I should
think," she said to herself. "She looked sour enough to be several
kinds of ache rolled in one. I hope the rest of the family are not
like that."

She did not have to wait long before a little girl came along the
dim entry toward her. She was brown-haired, brown-eyed, dark-skinned
and rather pale. She wore a plain blue gingham frock, and her hair
was tied in two pig-tails with a narrow black ribbon. She paused
timidly at sight of a stranger, but at Miss Dorothy's smile she came
forward eagerly. "Oh, are you--are you----" she began.

"The new teacher?" interrupted Miss Dorothy. "Yes, dear, I am. May
I come in? The ogress that guards your castle looked as if she might
make a meal of me and I was afraid to come any further."

Marian looked puzzled for a m