this quaint old
house from the outside, they were even more delighted by its interior.

They passed down a rather dark and narrow hall at the end of which were
three low steps leading to such a series of rooms as the girls had never
seen before, each furnished neatly but plainly, the only touch of color
being the gay cretonne curtains at the windows. The rooms all seemed to
be connected by doors and to reach these doors one was obliged to go up
two steps or down three or up one, as the case might be.

"Goodness," cried Betty, when Lizzie had led the way through three of
these quaint little rooms and the open doors seemed to reveal several
others, "I wonder if all these rooms were really occupied."

"Yes, miss," said Lizzie, halting and speaking unexpectedly. "They was a
time when these rooms wuz all filled. Old Mr. Barcolm"--this being the
name of Mrs. Nelson's great uncle--"had a many children and
grandchildren an' seemed like he was sot on 'em all livin' with him. But
they got to quarrelin' and all left th' old man an' he was so mad he cut
'em all out o' his will. At least," she finished, as though warned by
the intent look of her listeners that she had said more than she had
intended to, "that's what they says. But mebbe it ain't the truth, fer
all I knows."

Then she led them on again through the maze of rooms while the girls
thought amazedly of what she had told them. Finally she came to a stop
in a room, larger than the rest, and turned her rather stolid gaze upon
Mr. and Mrs. Nelson.

"Miz Cummins," she announced, dully--the girls were afterward to find
out that Cummins was the name of the rosy-faced woman who had met them
so cordially at the door and who seemed to be general housekeeper for
the place--"Miz Cummins thought as how this would be a good room fer the
mister and missus. They is some nice rooms back of these fer the young
ladies. She sed, if you liked any of the other rooms better, to take
your pick. They's fresh water in the pitchers," indicating a washstand
with a bowl and two pitchers of gleaming water upon it, "an' if you want
anythin' else, you wuz please to tell me." And with these words, uttered
so precisely that it sounded like a rehearsed speech, which, in fact, it
was, Lizzie disappeared, leaving the travelers to themselves.

"Come on, girls," cried Betty, pushing them before her into the next
room. "Let's see what kind of rooms 'Miz Cummins' has picked out for
us."

They were not at