a peg in the door. Outside, by an ash-pit, he
found a bucket and half-buried shovel. A minute after the kitchen was
filled with grey clouds as he shoveled the ashes into the bucket for
removal. He worked vigorously, and the pile soon disappeared; the wood and
coal followed, carried out to where a bin was built against the house.
Then he raked the fire from the stove.

It was cold within, but Gordon glowed with the heat of his energy. He
filled a basin with water, and, with an old brush and piece of sandsoap,
attacked the stove. He scrubbed until the surface exhibited a dull, even
black; then, in a cupboard, he discovered an old box of stove polish, and
soon the iron was gleaming in the lamplight. He laid and lit a fire, put
on a tin boiler of water for heating; and then carried all the movables
into the night. After which he fed General Jackson.

He flooded the kitchen floor and scrubbed and scraped until the boards
were immaculate. Then, with a wet towel about a broom, he cleaned the
walls and ceiling; he washed the panes of window glass. The dishes
followed; they were dried and ranged in rigid rows on the dresser; the
pots were scoured and placed in the closets underneath. Now, he thought
vindictively, when he had finished, the kitchen would suit even Sim
Caley's wife--the old vinegar bottle.

The Caleys had left his house the morning following Lettice's funeral.
Mrs. Caley had departed without a word; Sim with but a brief, awkward
farewell. Since then Gordon had lived alone in the house; but he now
realized that it was not desirable, practicable. Things, he knew, would
soon return to the dirt and disorder of a few hours ago. He needed some
one, a woman, to keep the place decent. His necessity recalled the
children of his sister.... There was only Rose; the next girl was too
young for dependence. The former had been married a year now, and had a
baby. Her husband had been in the village only the week before in search
of employment, which he had been unable to secure, and it was immaterial
where in the County they lived.

V

The couple grasped avidly at the opportunity to live with him. The youth
had already evaporated from Rose's countenance; her minute mouth and
constantly lifted eyebrows expressed an inwardly-gratifying sense of
superiority, an effect strengthened by her thin, affected speech. Across
her narrow brow a fringe of hair fell which she was continually crimping
with an iron heated in the kit