fied air.

As Lottie and Eva entered, she exclaimed:

"Well, you an' Mart's been gittin' acquainted, I reckon. I heerd you
laughin' together. He's mighty friendly, an' easy to git acquainted
with. We all be, fer that matter. Some folks is so kind o' stuck up, or
somethin', that it takes a month o' Sundays to git to know 'em. But the
Hightons ain't that way!"

Lottie made no reply to these remarks. She was troubled and disgusted,
and did not know how to get rid of her unwelcome visitors. She sank,
silently, upon the couch by the window.

Mrs. Highton stopped her rocking, and turned her chair so that she could
face her listeners, and resumed:

"Mart an' me's bin talkin' 'bout the way you children's situated here.
Mrs. Green told me all about it, afore she went away. An' she says to
me, says she, 'Them poor, motherless, orphant children hadn't orto be
livin' over there by theirselves,' says she; 'but the oldest
girl'--that's you, I reckon" nodding at Lottie--"'is mighty sot an'
determined, an' is bound to stick to the place.'

"So Mart an' me, we've been talkin' it over, an' we concluded to come
an' hev a talk with you. He says to me, says he, 'If the children want
to go to their relations, we'll buy their housell stuff--fer we're
a-needin' the things--an' they kin take the money an' go. But if they'd
ruther stay, why, let 'em stay.'"

Mrs. Highton paused a moment, as if expecting to be thanked for this
generous concession. But as Lottie made no response, she continued:

"Him an' me thought that if you was so sot to stay here, mebbe you'd be
willin' to let us move in with you. His brother Ike's got a big family,
an' they're about took possession of the cabin the Greens moved out of.
The boys is goin' to put up shanties on their claims, but we'd like to
git settled quick as we kin, for we've been livin' jest 'anyhow' long
'nough. We could all live together in one family, an' that way your
livin' wouldn't cost you a cent. Mart says he'd look after things on the
place, an' I'd be a kind o' mother to you. It wouldn't be near so
lonesome fer you, an' it would be a 'commodation to us. Our gittin' the
use o' the house an' sich like would make you square about the
board-bill. Now, what do you say to our offer?"

[Illustration:
MR. HIGHTON SHIFTED IN HIS SEAT, AND SAID, IN AN INSINUATING
TONE, "YOU SEEM TO HEV A VERY POOR OPINION OF ME, MISS."]

Lottie shuddered at the idea of living in the house with these people.
And