"and Father is bringing a man home to supper!"

"Company!" gasped Lydia, throwing up her hands. "Whoever can it be at
this time of the day and in such an out of the way place as this? And
nothing but black broth ready for supper! I might have had a roast
fowl at least if only I had known. Where are they now?"

"They are coming down the road," said Dion. "They stopped to see the
sheep and cattle driven into the farm-yard. They'll be here soon."

Lydia thrust her distaff into the wool-basket by her side and rose
hastily from her stool. "There's no time to lose," she said. "The
Stranger will not wish to linger here if he expects to reach Ambelaca
to-night. It is a good two miles to the village, and he'll not find a
boat crossing to the mainland after dark. I am sure of that,
unlessperhaps he has one waiting for him there."

As she spoke, Lydia drew her skirt shorter through her girdle and started
for the hearth-fire in the room beyond. "Shoo," she cried to the hens,
which had followed the children into the house and were searching
hopefully for something to eat among the ashes, "you'll burn your toes as
like as not! Begone, unless you want to be put at once into the pot! Go
for them, Argos! Dion, you feed them. They'll be under foot until they've
had their supper, and it's time they were on the roost this minute!
Daphne, your face is dirty; go wash it, while I get the fire started and
see if I can't find something to eat more fitting to set before a guest."

While the children ran to carry out their Mother's orders, Lydia herself
seized the bellows and blew upon the embers of the fire. "By all the
Gods!" she cried, "there's not a stick of wood in the house." She dropped