nding road up which they had climbed the day before.

"Yes, this wing will do very nicely for _us_," Lyddy said, thinking aloud.
"We can make that room downstairs where we're sleeping, our sitting-room
when it comes warm weather; and that will give us all the rest of the
house----"

"All but the old doctor's offices," suggested 'Phemie, doubtfully. "There
are three of them."

"Well," returned Lyddy, "three and four are seven; and seven from
twenty-two leaves fifteen. Some of the first-floor rooms we'll have to
use as dining and sitting-rooms for the boarders----"

"My goodness me!" exclaimed her sister, again breaking in upon her
ruminations. "You've got the house full of boarders already; have you?
What will Aunt Jane say?"

"That we'll find out. But there ought to be at least twelve rooms to let.
If there's as much furniture and stuff in all as there is in these----"

"But how'll we ever get the boarders? And how'd we cook for 'em over that
open fire? It's ridiculous!" declared 'Phemie.

"_That_ is yet to be proved," returned her sister, unruffled.

They pursued their investigation through the second-floor rooms. There
were eight of them in the main part of the house and two in the east wing
over the old doctor's offices. The last two were only partially furnished
and had been used in their grandfather's day more for "lumber rooms"
than aught else. It was evident that Dr. Phelps had demanded quiet and
freedom in his own particular wing of Hillcrest.

But the eight rooms in the main part of the house on this second floor
were all of good size, well lighted, and completely furnished. Some of
them had probably not been slept in for fifty years, for when the girls'
mother, and even Aunt Jane, were young, Dr. Apollo Phelps's immediate
family was not a large one.

"The furniture is all old-fashioned, it is true," Lyddy said,
reflectively. "There isn't a metal bed in the whole house----"

"And I had just as lief sleep in a coffin as in some of these high-headed
carved walnut bedsteads," declared 'Phemie.

"You don't have to sleep in them," responded her sister, quietly. "But
some people would think it a privilege to do so."

"They can have _my_ share, and no charge," sniffed the younger girl. "That
bed downstairs is bad enough. And what would we do for mattresses? That's
_one_ antique they wouldn't stand for--believe me! Straw beds, indeed!"

"We'll see about that. We might get some cheap elastic-felt mattress