nd of the
beholder,--tall, outlandish old things in wooden cases.

It was believed that Clem had wasted money in paying freight on this
stuff. Certainly no one in Little Arcady would have paid those bills to
possess the furniture. As to the folly of those who had originally
purchased it, the town was likewise a unit.

If Clem was made aware of this public sentiment, he still did not waver
in his loyalty to the old pieces. Day after day he unpacked and dusted
and polished them with loving devotion. They spoke to him of other days,
and when he was quite sure that the last freight bill had been paid, he
seemed really to enjoy them. The unexpected drain had reduced his
savings to a pittance, but were not the pullets which he could raise
absolutely without number?

It was true that Miss Caroline would have to come alone now, leaving
Little Miss still to teach in the school at Baltimore until a day of
renewed surplus. This much Clem confided to me in sorrow. I sympathized
with him, truly, but I felt it was a fortunate circumstance. I thought
that one of the ladies at a time would be as much as Little Arcady could
assimilate.

Slowly the house grew into a home awaiting its mistress, a home whose
furnished rooms overflowed into others not furnished but merely crowded.

I foresaw, not without a certain wicked cheerfulness, that, even after
the coming of Miss Caroline, Clem would be forced to pander to my
breakfast appetites for the slight betterment it made in his fortunes,
even must this be done surreptitiously. And at least one dinner was
secured to me beyond the coming of this mistress; for Clem had conveyed
to me, with appropriate ceremony, an invitation, which I promptly
accepted, to dine with Mrs. Caroline Lansdale at six-thirty on the
evening of her arrival, she having gleaned from his letters, it
appeared, that I had been a rather friendly adviser of her servant.

In the days that followed I saw that Clem was regarding me with an
embarrassed, troubled look. Something of weight lay upon his mind. Nor
was it easy, to make him speak, but I achieved this at last.

"Well, seh, Mahstah Majah, yo'-all see, Ah ain't eveh told Miss Cahline
that yo's a Majah in th' Nawthun ahmy."

"No?" I said.

"No, seh; Ah ain't even said yo's been a common soljah."

"Well?"

"'Cause Miss Cahline's tehible heahtfelt 'bout some mattehs. Th'
Lansdales sho'ly kin ca'y a grudge powful long. An' so--seh--Ah ain't
neveh tole on yo'."