expect to hear something about MY looks, I can tell you. Waity,
after all, though we never have what we want to eat, and never a
decent dress to our backs, nor a young man to cross the
threshold, I wouldn't change places with Ivory Boynton, would
you?" Here Patty swept the hearth vigorously with a turkey wing
and added a few corncobs to the fire.

Waitstill paused a moment in her task of bread-kneading. "Well,"
she answered critically, "at least we know where our father is."

"We do, indeed! We also know that he is thoroughly alive!"

"And though people do talk about him, they can't say the things
they say of Master Aaron Boynton. I don't believe father would
ever run away and desert us."

"I fear not," said Patty. "I wish the angels would put the idea
into his head, though, of course, it wouldn't be the angels;
they'd be above it. It would have to be the 'Old Driver,' as Jed
Morrill calls the Evil One; but whoever did it, the result would
be the same: we should be deserted, and live happily ever after.
Oh! to be deserted, and left with you alone on this hilltop, what
joy it would be!"

Waitstill frowned, but did not interfere further with Patty's
intemperate speech. She knew that she was simply serving as an
escape-valve, and that after the steam was "let off" she would be
more rational.

"Of course, we are motherless," continued Patty wistfully, "but