erever she came. She was "cute," too, as
Damaris had declared beforehand; she was a little wonder at noticing
and remembering, and for all sorts of handiness that a child of five
could possibly be put to.

Hazel dressed rag babies for her, and made her a soap-box baby-house
in the corner of the kitchen, and taught her her letters; and began
to think that she should hate to have her go when Luclarion came
back.

Damaris proved clever and teachable in the kitchen; and had, above
all, the rare and admirable disposition to keep things scrupulously
as she had found them; so that Luclarion, in her afternoon trips
home, was comforted greatly to find that while she was "clearing and
ploughing" at Mrs. Scarup's, her own garden of neatness was not
being turned into a howling wilderness; and she observed, as is
often done so astutely, that "when you _do_ find a neat, capable,
colored help, it's as good help as you can have." Which you may
notice is just as true without the third adjective as with.

Luclarion herself was having a splendid time.

The first thing she did was to announce to Mrs. Scarup that she was
out of her place for two weeks, and would like to come to her at her
wages; which Mrs. Scarup received with some such awed and
unbelieving astonishment as she might have done the coming of a
legion of angels with Gabriel at their head. And when one strong,
generous human will, with powers of brain and body under it
sufficient to some good work, comes down upon it as Luclarion did
upon hers, there _is_ what Gabriel and his angels stand for, and no
less sent of God.

The second thing Luclarion did was to clean that "settin'-room
fire-place," to restore the pleasant brown color of its freestone
hearth and jambs, to polish its rusty brasses till they shone like
golden images of gods, and to lay an ornamental fire of chips and
clean little sticks across the irons. Then she took a wet broom and
swept the carpet three times, and dusted everything with a damp
duster; and then she advised Mrs. Scarup, whom the gruel had already
cheered and strengthened, to be "helped down, and sit there in the
easy-chair, for a change, and let her take her room in hand." And no
doctor ever prescribed any change with better effect. There are a
good many changes that might be made for people, without sending
them beyond their own doors. But it isn't the doctors who always
know _what_ change, or would dare to prescribe it if they did.

Mrs. Sc