language!" cried Mrs.
Mumpson, darting from her chair like a hawk and pouncing upon the
unhappy child.

With ears tingling from a cuffing she could not soon forget, Jane
lighted the parlor fire and sat down sniffling in the farthest corner.

"There shall be only one mistress in this house," said Mrs. Mumpson,
who had now reached the loftiest plane of virtuous indignation, "and
its master shall learn that his practices reflect upon even me as well
as himself."

At last the sound of horses' feet were heard on the wet, oozy ground
without. The irate widow did not rise, but merely indicated her
knowledge of Holcroft's arrival by rocking more rapidly.

"Hello, there, Jane!" he shouted, "bring a light to the kitchen."

"Jane, remain!" said Mrs. Mumpson, with an awful look.

Holcroft stumbled through the dark kitchen to the parlor door and
looked with surprise at the group before him,--Mrs. Mumpson apparently
oblivious and rocking as if the chair was possessed, and the child
crying in a corner.

"Jane, didn't you hear me call for a light?" he asked a little sharply.

Mrs. Mumpson rose with great dignity and began, "Mr. Holcroft, I wish
to remonstrate--"

"Oh, bother! I've brought a woman to help you, and we're both wet
through from this driving rain."

"You've brought a strange female at this time of--"

Holcroft's patience gave say, but he only said quietly, "You had better
have a light in the kitchen within two minutes. I warn you both. I
also wish some hot coffee."

Mrs. Mumpson had no comprehension of a man who could be so quiet when
he was angry, and she believed that she might impress him with a due
sense of the enormity of his offense. "Mr. Holcroft, I scarcely feel
that I can meet a girl who has no more sense of decorum than to--" But
Jane, striking a match, revealed the fact that she was speaking to
empty air.

Mrs. Wiggins was at last so far aroused that she was helped from the
wagon and came shivering and dripping toward the kitchen. She stood a
moment in the doorway and filled it, blinking confusedly at the light.
There was an absence of celerity in all Mrs. Wiggins' movements, and
she was therefore slow in the matter of waking up. Her aspect and
proportions almost took away Mrs. Mumpson's breath. Here certainly was
much to superintend, much more than had been anticipated. Mrs. Wiggins
was undoubtedly a "peculiar female," as had been expected, but she was
so elderly and monstrous that Mrs. M