"I hope you will find it in middling order," said Mrs. Patton, humbly.
"Me and Mis' Dockum have done the best we knew,--opened the windows and
let in the air and tried to keep it from getting damp. I fixed all the
woollens with fresh camphire and tobacco the last o' the winter; you
have to be dreadful careful in one o' these old houses, 'less everything
gets creaking with moths in no time. Miss Katharine, how she did hate
the sight of a moth-miller! There's something I'll speak about before I
forget it: the mice have eat the backs of a pile o' old books that's
stored away in the west chamber closet next to Miss Katharine's room,
and I set a trap there, but it was older 'n the ten commandments, that
trap was, and the spring's rusty. I guess you'd better get some new ones
and set round in different places, 'less the mice'll pester you. There
ain't been no chance for 'em to get much of a living 'long through the
winter, but they'll be sure to come back quick as they find there's
likely to be good board. I see your aunt's cat setting out on the front
steps. She never was no great of a mouser, but it went to my heart to
see how pleased she looks! Come right back, didn't she? How they do hold
to their old haunts!"

"Was that Miss Brandon's cat?" I asked, with great interest. "She has
been up stairs with us, but I supposed she belonged to some neighbor,
and had strayed in. She behaved as if she felt at home, poor old pussy!"

"We must keep her here," said Kate.

"Mis' Dockum took her after your mother went off, and Miss Katharine's
maids," said Mrs. Patton; "but she told me that it was a long spell
before she seemed to feel contented. She used to set on the steps and
cry by the hour together, and try to get in, to first one door and then
another. I used to think how bad Miss Katharine would feel; she set a