The door opened softly, and a girl of about Charlotte's age slipped
in. Nobody except Mrs. Barnard, who said, absently, "How do you do,
Rose?" seemed to notice her. She sat down unobtrusively in a chair
near the door and waited. Her blue eyes upon the others were so
intense with excitement that they seemed to blot out the rest of her
face. She had her blue apron tightly rolled about both hands.

Deborah Thayer, on her way to the door, looked at her as if she had
been a part of the wall, but suddenly she stopped and cast a glance
at Cephas. "What be you makin'?" she asked, with a kind of scorn at
him, and scorn at her own curiosity.

Cephas did not reply, but he looked ugly as he slapped another piece
of dough heavily upon a plate.

Deborah, as if against her will, moved closer to the table and bent
over the pan of sorrel. She smelled of it; then she took a leaf and
tasted it, cautiously. She made a wry face. "It's sorrel," said she.
"You're makin' pies out of sorrel. A man makin' pies out of sorrel!"

She looked at Cephas like a condemning judge. He shot a fiery glance
at her, but said nothing. He sprinkled the sorrel leaves in the pie.

"Well," said Deborah, "I've got a sense of justice, and if my son, or
any other man, has asked a girl to marry him, and she's got her
weddin' clothes ready, I believe in his doin' his duty, if he can be
made to; but I must say if it wa'n't for that, I'd rather he'd gone
into a family that was more like other folks. I'm goin' to do the
best I can, whether you go half way or not. I'm goin' to try to make
my son do his duty. I don't expect he will, but I shall do all I can,
tempers or no tempers, and sorrel pies or no sorrel pies."

Deborah went out, and shut the door heavily after her.

Chapter IV

After Deborah Thayer had shut the door, the young girl sitting beside
it arose. "I didn't know she was in here, or I wouldn't have come
in," she said, nervously.

"That don't make any odds," replied Mrs. Barnard, who was trembling
all over, and had sunk helplessly into a rocking-chair, which she
swayed violently and unconsciously.

Cephas opened the door of the brick oven, and put in a batch of his
pies, and the click of the iron latch made her start as if it were a
pistol-shot.

Charlotte got up and went out of the room with a backward glance and
a slight beckoning motion of her head, and the girl slunk after her
so secretly that it seemed as if she did not see herself. Ce