illness or for punishment, nobody knew, nor dared anybody question
the dignified Madam. Eunice had heard the rumor that morning and had
immediately gone to see her friend and offer her own service as nurse,
should nursing be necessary. Therefore, it was more to please himself
than oblige Susanna, that he called through the window:

"Sissy, do you like chestnuts?"

"Oh, I love them! Why? And please, please don't call me 'Sissy.' It
makes me feel so silly. My name is Katharine Maitland, though at home--"
there came a little catch in her throat, which nobody else
observed--"they used to call me 'Kitty Quixote,'" answered the girl,
running to the window, and looking through the half-closed blind to the
hired man.

"Hm-m. Ke-ho-ta. Kehota? Kee-ho-tee? Why, I thought I knew the Maitland
family, root an' branch, twists an' turns an' ramifications, but I never
heerd tell of a Keehotey amongst 'em. Not even 'mongst their wives'
folks, nuther. Your own ma was a Woodley, and your pa's second was a
Snowball, Eunice says, so how happens--"

"Oh, you dear, funny old fellow! Quixote wasn't any of our folks, but a
fiction-y man, who was always doing chivalrous things in the wrong
place, or where there was no occasion, as papa said--just like me. Wait
till I come, please. I'll put on my hat and jacket and be back in a
minute. For I've guessed what you mean about liking chestnuts. I'm to go
to the wood-lot with you and gather them for myself. And I never,
never, never in all my life gathered chestnuts! I've just bought them
from the stands."

Away she flew, leaving Susanna rather doubtful of the success of her
intended punishment. From present appearances Katharine was going to
enjoy a morning in the woods with Moses far better than she would have
done in the kitchen seeding raisins.

"An' she must have et as much as two whole bunches, even in that little
spell. So, after all, it's a good thing for the cake, 'lowin' 't we want
to have it rich in fruit, that she is goin'. But Eunice will have to see
about her clothes. The idee! Wearin' white every day same as if it was
Sunday in the summer-time. She told Eunice that her stepmother thought
white was the sensiblest, for it would wash and bile, and she always
needed bilin'. But she looks real peart, and sort of different set-up
from Marsden girls in that little blue flannel suit she wore to come in.
Dress an' coat an' hat all the same color, an' fittin' her's if she'd
been run into '