,
anyhow."

The porch extended around three sides of the old, rambling house.
Proceeding along the sheltered piazza, Tom and Mary soon found
themselves at the front door. There the nature of the place was at once
made plain, for on a board was lettered the words "Meadow Inn."

"I see what has happened," Tom remarked, as he opened the old-fashioned
ground glass door and ushered Mary in. "Some one has taken the old
farmhouse and made it into a roadhouse--a wayside inn. I shouldn't
think such a place would pay out here; but I'm mighty glad we struck
it."

"Yes, indeed," agreed Mary.

The old farmhouse, one of the best of its day, had been transformed
into a roadhouse of the better class. On either side of the entrance
hall were dining rooms, in which were set small tables, spread with
snowy cloths.

"In here, sir, if you please," said a white-aproned waiter, gliding
forward to take Tom's leather coat and Mary's jacket of like material.
The waiter ushered them into a room, in which at first there seemed to
be no other diners. Then, from behind a screen which was pulled around
a table in one corner, came the murmur of voices and the clatter of
cutlery on china, which told of some one at a meal there.

"Somebody is fond of seclusion," thought Tom, as he and Mary took their
places. And as he glanced over the bill of fare his ears caught the
murmur of the voices of two men coming from behind the screen. One
voice was low and rumbling, the other high-pitched and querulous.

"Talking business, probably," mused Tom. "What do you feel like
eating?" he asked Mary.

"I wasn't very hungry until I came in," she answered, with a smile.
"But it is so cozy and quaint here, and so clean and neat, that it
really gives one an appetite. Isn't it a delightful place, Tom? Did you
know it was here?"

"It is very nice. And as this is the first I have been here for a long
while I didn't know, any more than you, that it had been made into a
roadhouse. But what shall I order for you?"

"I should think you would have had enough experience by this time,"
laughed Mary, for it was not the first occasion that she and Tom had
dined out.

Thereupon he gave her order and his own, too, and they were soon eating
heartily of food that was in keeping with the appearance of the place.

"I must bring Ned and Mr. Damon here," said Tom. "They'll appreciate
the quaintness of this inn," for many of the quaint appointments of the
old farmhouse had bee