And
it's a nice, satisfactory distance from the widow Larkin, too."

So Kenelm came daily to work and did work--some. When he did not he
always had a plausible excuse. As a self-excuser he was a shining light.

Thankful had, during the repairs on the house, waited more or less
anxiously for developments concerning the mystery of the little back
bedroom. Painters and paperhangers had worked in that room as in others,
but no reports of strange sounds, or groans, or voices, had come from
there. During the week preceding the day of formal opening Thankful
herself had spent her nights in that room, but had not heard nor seen
anything unusual. She was now pretty thoroughly convinced that the storm
had been responsible for the groans and that the rest had been due to
her imagination. However, she determined to let that room and the larger
one adjoining last of all; she would take no chances with the lodgers,
she couldn't afford it.

Among the equipment of the High Cliff House or its outbuildings were a
horse, a pig, and a dozen hens and two roosters. Captain Obed bought
the horse at Mrs. Barnes' request, a docile animal of a sedate age. A
second-hand buggy and a second-hand "open wagon" he also bought. The
pig and hens Thankful bought herself in Trumet. She positively would
not consent to the pig's occupying the sty beneath the woodshed and
adjoining the potato cellar, so a new pen was built in the hollow at
the rear of the house. Imogene was tremendously interested in the
live-stock. She begged the privilege of naming each animal and fowl.
Mrs. Barnes had been encouraging the girl to read literature more
substantial than the "Fireside Companion" tales in which she had
hitherto delighted, and had, as a beginning, lent her a volume of United
States history, one of several discarded schoolbooks which Emily Howes
sent at her cousin's request. Imogene was immensely interested in the
history. She had just finished the Revolution and the effect of her
reading was evident when she announced the names she had selected.

The horse, being the most important of all the livestock, she christened
George Washington. The pig was named Patrick Henry. The largest hen
was Martha Washington. "As to them two roosters," she explained, "I did
think I'd name the big handsome one John Hancock and the littlest one
George Three. They didn't like each other, ma'am, that was plain at the
start, so I thought they'd ought to be on different sides. But t