s, though they're not poor, and regular poor people,
too--do love talking about illnesses--other people's as well as their
own. And she had a lot of questions to ask about 'Miss Dorothea' too.
She 'did hope as she'd come down to Mossmoor some day.'

All this time we were going towards the house. But it was rather a slow
business, doing so much talking by the way, and I _was_ in a fidget to
see the rooms and find out if they'd do. There was no hall or passage;
we went straight into a large kitchen, a very large one. You didn't see
at first how big it was, because just round the door--to keep out the
draught, I suppose--there was a fixed wooden screen, like what you see
in lots of cottages. I was a little surprised that there was no hall,
for, outside, the house looked really rather grand; it might have been
called 'Mossmoor Grange,' for it was built of nice dull red old bricks
and the windows were very pretty--out-jutting, you know, and with tiny
panes. But once you were well inside the kitchen you couldn't have
wished it any different. It was so jolly; not a bit messy, you know, as
if plates and dishes were washed there, or potatoes peeled, or anything
like that, for there was a good-sized back kitchen where all that was
done. The floor was tiled, with good thick rugs here and there, and
there was a regular old grandfather's clock and bright brass pans and
things on the wall.

I wondered at first if this could be the kitchen we were to have as a
sitting-room. But Mrs. Parsley soon explained.

'Won't you sit down and rest a bit, ma'am,' she said, 'before I show you
the rooms?'

But mums and I both said we weren't at all tired.

'Well, then,' she said, 'if you'll be so good, we'll step through this
way,' and she opened a door at quite the other side of the kitchen.
'You'll have a little lunch, I _hope_,' said the kind woman, 'after
we've seen the rooms,' and she nodded towards a table, which was all
spread with a white cloth and on it two or three dishes, one with a cold
ham, and another with some kind of a pie or tart, and a big jug of milk.
I was getting hungry, but still I cared most of all to see the rooms.

Through the door there _was_ a tiny hall. It had a nice window, and a
door stood open at the other end.

'This is the summer kitchen, as we always call it,' said Mrs. Parsley.
'I had a little fire lighted just for you to see, it's nice and
comfortable,'--she called it 'com,' not _cum_-fortable,'--'even if t