"In your house!"

"In my house? What for?"

"I dunno," said Mirandy, unhappily.

"Dunno? Well, what are they doin' there?"

"I dunno that. We only know there's somebody there."

Here the brown-bread kettle boiled over, creating a diversion; and
Mirandy gladly rose to set it further back. A slight heat had come into
Mrs. Wadleigh's manner.

"Cyrus," said she, with emphasis, "I should like to have you speak. I
left that house in your care. I left the key with you, an' I should
like to know who you've been an' got in there."

Cyrus opened his mouth, and then closed it again without saying a word.
He looked appealingly at his wife; and she took up the tale with some
joy, now that the first plunge had been made.

"Well," she said, folding her hands in her apron, and beginning to rock
back and forth, a little color coming into her cheeks, and her eyes
snapping vigorously. "You see, this was the way 'twas. Cyrus, do let me
speak!" Cyrus had ineffectually opened his mouth again. "Wa'n't it in
November you went away? I thought so. Jest after that first sprinklin'
o' snow, that looked as if 'twould lay all winter. Well, we took the
key, an' hung it up inside the clock--an' there 'tis now!--an' once a
week, reg'lar as the day come round, Cyrus went over, an' opened the