d Elihu absently put his hand to the
roll in his pocket--"when it come to them, I said you might show 'em to
the minister and the doctor and everybody else. But, Elihu, there
ain't--O Elihu, you ain't put a single closet in that house!"

Elihu stood there in silence, and Amarita sat on the packing-case,
feeling her heart beat. It seemed a long time before she heard his
voice.

"There! there!" he was saying. "You open that door and I'll look in an'
see if the chimbley's ketched."

In a moment Amarita followed him. She heard mother Meade moving about
the kitchen, and Elihu was just dropping his roll of paper on the fire.
She gave a little cry, but he only said, in what seemed to her a very
kind voice, almost the voice of courting days,--

"You run out and fetch me in the hammer and screw-driver, whilst I
listen to this chimbley."

When she came droopingly back with the tools, Elihu was explicitly
cheerful.

"There!" he said. "That's safe enough. We'll burn it out, come wet
weather." Then he strode into the hall, and she heard two or three blows
and the splintering of soft wood. "Here's your books," Elihu was calling
to her. "You two take 'em out, and if 'tain't too late after I come
home, I'll read a page. I guess we can foot the bill when it comes in."

* * * * *

Books by Alice Brown

COUNTRY NEIGHBORS. 12mo, $1.20, _net_. Postage extra.

THE STORY OF THYRZA. With frontispiece. Large square crown 8vo,
$1.35, _net_. Postpaid, $1.50.

ROSE MACLEOD. With frontispiece. Crown 8vo, $1.50.

THE COUNTY ROAD. 12mo, $1.50.

THE COURT OF LOVE. 12mo, $1.25.

PARADISE. 12mo, $1.50.

HIGH NOON. 12mo, $1.50.

THE MANNERINGS. Crown 8vo, $1.50.

MARGARET WARRENER. 12mo, $1.50.

KING'S END. 12mo, $1.50.

MEADOW GRASS. Tales of New England Life. 16mo, $1.50;
paper, 50 cents.

TIVERTON TALES. 12mo, $1.50.

BY OAK AND THORN. A Record of English Days. 16mo, $1.25.

THE DAY OF HIS YOUTH. 16mo, $1.00.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK

* * * * *

The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
U. S. A

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COUNTRY NEIGHBORS***

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