re she ceased shaking. And by that time,
too, she had quite recovered her self-control.

"You're a very foolish little girl," declared Lyddy, warningly, "to
get up alone and go wandering about this house. Why, _I_ wouldn't do it
for--for the whole farm!"

"I--I dropped my candle. It went out," said 'Phemie, quietly. "I guess
being in the dark scared me more than anything."

"Now, that's enough. Forget it! We'll go to bed again and see if we can't
get some sleep. Why! it's past eleven."

So the sisters crept into bed again, and lay in each other's arms,
whispering a bit and finally, before either of them knew it, they were
asleep. And neither ghosts, nor whispering voices, nor any other midnight
sounds disturbed their slumbers for the remainder of that first night
at Hillcrest.

They were awake betimes--and without the help of the alarm clock. It was
pretty cold in the two rooms; but they threw kindling on the coals and
soon the flames were playing tag through the interlacing sticks that
'Phemie heaped upon the fire.

The kettle was soon bubbling again, while Lyddy mixed batter cakes. A
little bed of live coals was raked together in front of the main fire
and on this a well greased griddle was set, where the cakes baked to a
tender brown and were skillfully lifted off by 'Phemie and buttered and
sugared.

What if a black coal or two _did_ snap over the cakes? And what if
'Phemie's hair _did_ get smoked and "smelly?" Both girls declared cooking
before an open fire to be great fun. They had yet, however, to learn a
lot about "how our foremothers cooked."

"I don't for the life of me see how they ever used that brick oven," said
Lyddy, pointing to the door in the side of the chimney. "Surely, that hole
in the bricks would never heat from _this_ fire."

"Ask Lucas," advised 'Phemie, and as though in answer to that word, Lucas
himself appeared, bearing offerings of milk, eggs, and new bread.

"Huh!" he said, in a gratified tone, sniffing in the doorway. "I told maw
you two gals wouldn't go hungry. Ye air a sight too clever."

"Thank you, Lucas," said Lyddy, demurely. "Will you have a cup of tea!"

"No'm. I've had my breakfast. It's seven now and I'll go right t' work
cutting wood for ye. That's what ye'll want most, I reckon. And I want to
git ye a pile ready, for it won't be many days before we start plowin',
an' then dad won't hear to me workin' away from home."

Lyddy went out of doors for a moment and spoke