Abby, her name was--Abby
Bird. She was a widow; she had never had any children. She had a
little money--Mrs. Dennison didn't have any--and she had come to East
Wilmington and bought the house they lived in. It was a real pretty
house, though it was very old and run down. It had cost Mrs. Bird a
good deal to put it in order. I guess that was the reason they took me
to board. I guess they thought it would help along a little. I guess
what I paid for my board about kept us all in victuals. Mrs. Bird had
enough to live on if they were careful, but she had spent so much
fixing up the old house that they must have been a little pinched for
awhile.

"Anyhow, they took me to board, and I thought I was pretty lucky to get
in there. I had a nice room, big and sunny and furnished pretty, the
paper and paint all new, and everything as neat as wax. Mrs. Dennison
was one of the best cooks I ever saw, and I had a little stove in my
room, and there was always a nice fire there when I got home from
school. I thought I hadn't been in such a nice place since I lost my
own home, until I had been there about three weeks.

"I had been there about three weeks before I found it out, though I
guess it had been going on ever since they had been in the house, and
that was most four months. They hadn't said anything about it, and I
didn't wonder, for there they had just bought the house and been to so
much expense and trouble fixing it up.

"Well, I went there in September. I begun my school the first Monday.
I remember it was a real cold fall, there was a frost the middle of
September, and I had to put on my winter coat. I remember when I came
home that night (let me see, I began school on a Monday, and that was
two weeks from the next Thursday), I took off my coat downstairs and
laid it on the table in the front entry. It was a real nice coat--heavy
black broadcloth trimmed with fur; I had had it the winter before.
Mrs. Bird called after me as I went upstairs that I ought not to leave
it in the front entry for fear somebody might come in and take it, but
I only laughed and called back to her that I wasn't afraid. I never
was much afraid of burglars.

"Well, though it was hardly the middle of September, it was a real cold
night. I remember my room faced west, and the sun was getting low, and
the sky was a pale yellow and purple, just as you see it sometimes in
the winter when there is going to be a cold snap. I rather think t