assurances of unlimited capability.

"Faix I kin do all the wourk, in doors and out, so I takes the notion," she
had asserted.

There certainly was no lack of bone and muscle in the big, red-faced,
middle-aged woman who was so ready to preside at his hearth and glean from his
diminished dairy a modicum of profit; but as he trudged home along the wintry
road, he experienced strong feelings of disgust at the thought of such a
creature sitting by the kitchen fire in the place once occupied by his wife.

During all these domestic vicissitudes he had occupied the parlor, a stiff,
formal, frigid apartment, which had been rarely used in his married life. He
had no inclination for the society of his help; in fact, there had been none
with whom he could associate. The better class of those who went out to
service could find places much more to their taste than the lonely farmhouse.
The kitchen had been the one cozy, cheerful room of the house, and, driven
from it, the farmer was an exile in his own home. In the parlor he could at
least brood over the happy past, and that was about all the solace he had
left.

Bridget came and took possession of her domain with a sangfroid which appalled
Holcroft from the first. To his directions and suggestions, she curtly
informed him that she knew her business and "didn't want no mon around,
orderin' and interferin'."

In fact, she did appear, as she had said, capable of any amount of work, and
usually was in a mood to perform it; but soon her male relatives began to drop
in to smoke a pipe with her in the evening. A little later on, the supper
table was left standing for those who were always ready to "take a bite."--The