"No, and what do you suppose, he wants us to let him stay all night."

"Indeed, we will do no such thing. We cannot have the likes of him in
the house now. Where could he sleep?"

"Not in the best room, even if Mr. N. did not come."

"No, indeed!"

"But really I don't see, Jane, how we can turn him out of doors. He
doesn't look like a strong man, and it's full three miles to D----."

"It's too much; he ought to have gone on while he had daylight, and
not lingered here, as he did, till it got dark."

"We can't turn him out of doors, Jane, and it's no use to think of it.
He'll have to stay somehow."

"But what can we do with him?"

"He seems like a decent man at least; and doesn't look as if he had
anything bad about him. We might make a bed on the floor."

When Mr. W. returned to the kitchen, where the stranger had seated
himself before the fire, he informed him that he had decided to let
him stay all night. The man expressed in few words his grateful sense
of their kindness, and then became silent and thoughtful. Soon after
the farmer's wife, giving up all hope of Mr. N.'s arrival, had supper
taken up, which consisted of coffee, warm short-cake, and broiled
chicken. After all was on the table, a short conference was held as to