lf the cellar to make a stateroom for the pig. He
thought as much of that hog as if 'twas his own brother, and there WAS a
sort of family likeness."

Thankful snorted. "A pigsty under the house!" she said. "Well, that's
all I want to know about THAT man!"

As they were returning along the foot-path by the bluff Captain Obed,
who had been looking over his shoulder, suddenly stopped.

"That's kind of funny," he said.

"What?" asked Emily.

"Oh, nothin', I guess. I thought I caught a sight of somebody peekin'
around the back of that henhouse. If 'twas somebody he dodged back so
quick I couldn't be sure. Humph! I guess I was mistaken, or 'twas just
one of Solon Taylor's young ones. Solon's a sort of--sort of stevedore
at the Colfax place. Lives there and takes care of it while the owners
are away. No-o; no, I don't see nobody now."

Thankful was silent during the homeward walk. When she and Miss Howes
were alone in their room, she said:

"Emily, are you real set on gettin' back to South Middleboro tonight?"

"No, Auntie. Why?"

"Well, if you ain't I think I'd like to stay over another day. I've got
an idea in my head and, such a thing bein' kind of unusual, I'd like
to keep company with it for a spell. I'll tell you about it by and by;
probably 'twon't come to anything, anyway."

"But do you think we ought to stay here, as Miss Parker's guests?
Wouldn't it be--"

"Of course it would. We'll go over to that hotel, the one we started
for in the first place. Judgin' from what I hear of that tavern it'll be
wuth experiencin'; and--and somethin' may come of that, too."

She would not explain further, and Emily, knowing her well, did not
press the point.

Hannah Parker protested volubly when her "company" declared its
intention of going to the East Wellmouth Hotel.

"Of course you shan't do no such thing," she declared. "The idea! It's
no trouble at all to have you, and that hotel really ain't fit for such
folks as you to stay at. Mrs. Bacon, from Boston, stayed there one night
in November and she pretty nigh famished with the cold, to say nothin'
of havin' to eat huckleberry preserves for supper two nights runnin'.
Course they had plenty of other things in the closet, but they'd opened
a jar of huckleberries, so they had to be et up afore they spiled.
That's the way they run THAT hotel. And Mrs. Bacon is eastern
Massachusetts delegate from the State Grange. She's Grand Excited
Matron. Just think of treatin' her