ed the front and in the border below great clumps of
stately yellow lilies drooped their queenly heads. The front door led
straight into the house place, a square room with a big fire-place and
cozy ingle nooks. It was very simply furnished, but looked most artistic
with its rush-bottomed chairs, its few good pictures, and its stained
green table with the big bowl of wallflowers.

Miss Carson, a delightfully energetic lady whose age may have been
somewhere between thirty and forty, welcomed them cordially.

"I don't apologize for the plainness of my establishment," she remarked.
"It's all part of a purpose. We have no servants here, and as we have to
do our own house-work in addition to our farm-work, we want to reduce
our labor to a minimum. You see, there's hardly anything to dust in this
room: the books and the china are in those two cupboards with glass
doors, and we have no fripperies at all lying about. The only ornament
we allow ourselves is the bowl of flowers. Our bedrooms are equally
simple, and our kitchen is fitted with the latest and most up-to-date
labor-saving appliances. One of my students is preparing the dinner
there now. She's a nice girl, and Winona will perhaps like to go and
talk to her, unless she prefers to stay here with us."

Winona promptly decided in favor of the kitchen, so Miss Carson escorted
her there, and introduced her to Miss Heald, a jolly-looking girl of
about twenty, who, enveloped in a blue overall pinafore, was putting
plates to heat, and inspecting the contents of certain boilerettes and
casseroles. Like the sitting-room the kitchen contained no unnecessary
articles. It was spotlessly clean, and looked very business-like.

"We go on kitchen duty for a week at a time," explained Miss Heald to
Winona. "It's a part of the course, you know. We have dairy, gardening
and poultry as well. Which do I like best? It's hard to say. Poultry, I
think, because the chickens are such darlings. I'll show you all round
the place this afternoon, when I've finished washing up. I'm going to
lay the table now. You can help if you like."

Precisely at one o'clock the seven other students came in from their
work. Each was dressed in her farm uniform, short serge skirt, woolen
jersey, blue overall and thick boots. To judge from their looks, their
occupation was both healthy and congenial, in physique they were Hebes,
and their spirits seemed at bubbling point. Apparently they all adored
Miss Carson.