like lilock bushes, both of 'em. They may be cut down, and grubbed
up, and a parsley bed made on the spot, but some day they sprout up
ag'in, and before you know it you've got just as big a bush as ever.
Does Stephen Petter know you're comin'?"

[Illustration: A WAGON-LOAD OF NURSE-MAIDS.]

"Oh, yes," said Mrs. Cristie, quite willing to change the subject; "all
that is arranged. I was so pleased with the place when I was here
before, and Mrs. Petter was so good to me, that I quite long to spend a
summer there with my child."

"Well, I'm glad he knows you are comin', but if he didn't, I was goin'
ter say to you that you'd better go on to Lethbury, and then see what
you could do with Stephen to-morrow. It's no use stoppin' at his house
without givin' notice, and like as not it ain't no use then."

"Is Mr. Petter's house filled?" asked Mrs. Cristie.

"Filled!" said the elderly woman. "There's nobody on the place but his
own family and the Greek."

"Greek!" exclaimed Mrs. Cristie.

"Yes," said the other; "he keeps a Greek in an outhouse, but what for
nobody knows. I think Stephen Petter is gettin' more oncommon than he
was. If he wants to get custom for his house the best thing he can do is
to die. There ain't no other way, for Stephen's not goin' to do no
changin' of himself. My niece, Calthea Rose, the daughter of Daniel
Rose, who used to keep the store,--she keeps it now herself,--goes over
there a good deal, for she's wonderful partial to Susan Petter, and
there's a good reason for it too, for a better woman never lived, and
the walk over there is mostly shady, or through the fields, to both of
which Calthea is partial, and so she knows most things that's goin' on
at the Squirrel Inn, which latterly has not been much, except the comin'
of the Greek; an' as nobody has been able to get at the bottom of that
business, that isn't much, neither."

"I think I remember Miss Calthea Rose," said Mrs. Cristie. "She was
tall, wasn't she, with a very fair complexion?"

"Yes," said the elderly woman; "and it's just as fair now as it was
then. Some of it's owin' to sun-bonnet, and some of it to cold cream.
Calthea isn't as young as she was, but she's wonderful lively on her
feet yit, and there ain't many that could get ahead of her walkin' or
bargainin'."

"And she keeps the store?" asked Mrs. Cristie.

"Yes," said the other; "she keeps it, and in more ways than one. You
see, when Dan'el died--and that was two years ago