"Good Lord! Did you drink yours?"

"No--I never do, unless she watches me."

"But your glass is empty. What did you do with it?"

"Emptied it behind the back log. Of course, if you prefer to drink it--"

"Drink it!" His "toddy" splashed the back log, causing a tremendous
sizzle.

Before he could relieve his mind further, Hephzy appeared to announce
that dinner was ready if we were. We were, most emphatically, so we went
into the dining-room.

Hephzy and Jim did most of the talking during the meal. I had talked
more that forenoon than I had for a week--I am not a chatty person,
ordinarily, which, in part, explains my nickname--and I was very willing
to eat and listen. Hephzy, who was garbed in her best gown--best weekday
gown, that is; she kept her black silk for Sundays--talked a good deal,
mostly about dreams and presentiments. Susanna Wixon, Tobias Wixon's
oldest daughter, waited on table, when she happened to think of it, and
listened when she did not. Susanna had been hired to do the waiting and
the dish-washing during Campbell's brief visit. It was I who hired
her. If I had had my way she would have been a permanent fixture in the
household, but Hephzy scoffed at the idea. "Pity if I can't do housework
for two folks," she declared. "I don't care if you can afford it.
Keepin' hired help in a family no bigger than this, is a sinful
extravagance." As Susanna's services had been already engaged for the