heir house, and
help them all to be a blessing to her. Then she went down to the car,
and let Allison take her out to the addresses that had been given her.
As a result, by Wednesday the little gay chamber half-way up the
stairs was occupied by a pleasant-faced, sturdy colored girl about
eighteen years old, who rejoiced in the name of Cherry, and was at
once adopted as part of the new household with the same spirit with
which everything else had been done. Perhaps if every household would
go about it in the same way it would go far toward settling the
much-mooted servant question.

When Cherry was introduced into her bedchamber the look on her face
was worth seeing. It was in the early evening when she arrived, riding
on the front seat of the wagon that brought her trunk; and, when she
was ushered in by Julia Cloud, with Leslie in the offing to see what
the newcomer would say to it, the girl stepped in, gave a wild glance
around, then backed off, and rolled her eyes at her new mistress.

"This ain't--you-all ain't puttin' me inta dis year fine bedroom!" she
exclaimed in a kind of horror.

"Yes, this is your room," said Julia Cloud kindly, stepping in and
moving a chair a little farther from the bed, that there might be room
for the girl's trunk. "You can put your trunk right here, I should
think; and here is your closet," swinging open the closet door and
showing a plenitude of hooks and hangers, "and that is your bathroom."
She pushed back the crash curtain that shut off the tiny bathroom, and
stood back smiling. But the girl was not looking at her. She had cast
one wild look around, and then her eyes had been riveted on the little
vase on her bureau, containing a single late rose that Leslie had
found blooming in the small garden at the rear, and put there for good
luck, she said. Could it be that any one had cared to pick a flower
for a servant's room? Her eyes filled with tears; she dropped her
bundles on the floor, and came over to where her new mistress stood.

"Oh!" she said in a choked voice. "If you-all is goin' to treat me
like comp'ny, I'se jest goin' to wuk my fingahs to de bone for
youse!"

After the advent of Cherry things began to settle down into something
like routine. The inn was abandoned entirely, and each meal was a
festive occasion. Cherry took kindly to the cooking-lessons that Julia
Cloud knew well how to give. Light, wonderful white bread came forth
from the white-enamel gas-range oven, sw