awful young tramps this season, but they sha'n't go away hungry, if I
know it."

Accordingly, she set out a plentiful supply of bread and butter,
gingerbread, pie, and milk, put a tin plate of cold hash in the shed for
Rags, and swept him out to it with a corn broom; and, telling the
children comfortably to cram their "everlastin' little bread-baskets
full," returned to the sitting-room.

"Now, whatever makes you so panicky, Vildy? Didn't you never see a tramp
before, for pity's sake? And if you're scar't for fear I can't handle
'em alone, why, Jabe 'll be comin' along soon. The prospeck of gittin'
to bed's the only thing that'll make him 'n' Maria hurry; 'n' they'll
both be cal'latin' on that by this time!"

"Samanthy Ann, the first question that that boy asked me was, 'If Miss
Martha Cummins lived here.' Now, what do you make of that?"

Samantha looked as astonished as anybody could wish. "Asked if Marthy
Cummins lived here? How under the canopy did he ever hear Marthy's name?
Wall, somebody told him to ask, that's all there is about it; and what
harm was there in it, anyhow?"

"Oh, I don't know, I don't know; but the minute that boy looked up at me
and asked for Martha Cummins, the old trouble, that I thought was dead
and buried years ago, started right up in my heart and begun to ache
just as if it all happened yesterday."

"Now keep stiddy, Vildy; what could happen?" urged Samantha.