"I wish you could," she called back, "and the front door, too, it'd
be the better for it. To a stranger, I dare say it'll look shabby."

Evidently they expected the new-comer to be a very critical little
person.

"I can whitewash the back porch," thought Thomas, "and I'll do it
without saying anything to mother. It will be a bit of a surprise to
her."

But while he was putting on the last brushful or two, a thought came
to him which sent him hurrying into the house in quite a flurry.

"Mother!" he called up the stairs, "mother! we don't know when she's
coming, Lizzie didn't say--and what's to prevent her coming to-day?"

Patience dropped her scrubbing-brush and sat down on the top stair,
overcome with excitement and surprise. "To-day! this very day!
Oh dear! oh dear! how careless of Lizzie not to tell us! The poor
child might come at any time, and nobody be there to meet her, and we
can't write and ask, for she didn't give us any address to write to.
Lizzie did use to have some sense before she took up with that Harry
Lang, but now--"

Patience lapsed into silence because she could not find words which
would sufficiently express her feelings. She was tired and irritable
too, and she never could endure uncertainty.

Thomas had been standing by all this while, thinking deeply.
"Well," he said at last, "it's my belief she'd send her off as soon