shut up all day, and the sun had been beating on them:
they smelled of paint and dust and ill-brushed carpets. The water in the
pitchers was warm and not very clear: the towels were very small and
thin, the beds were hard, and the pillows very small, like the towels:
they felt soft and warm and limp, like sick kittens. We threw open the
windows and aired the rooms, and washed our faces and hands: and Miss
Lowder lay down on the bed and put her head on a pile of four of the
little pillows collected from the different rooms. Mary Leighton spent
the time in re-arranging her hair, and I walked up and down the hall,
too impatient to rest myself in any way.

By-and-by the others came, and then there was a hubbub and a clatter,
and poor Miss Lowder's head was overlooked in the melee; for these were
all the rooms the house afforded for the entertainment of wayfarers, and
as there were nine ladies in our party, it is not difficult to imagine
the confusion that ensued.

Benny and Charley also came to have their hair arranged, and it devolved
on Charlotte and me to do it, as their mamma had thrown herself
exhausted on one of the beds, and with the bolsters doubled up under her
head, was trying to get some rest.

It was fully half-past seven before the tea-bell rang. I seized Benny's
hand, and we were the first on the ground. I don't know how I thought
this would be useful in hurrying matters, for Benny's tea and mine were
very soon taken, and were very insignificant fractions of the
general business.

There were kerosene lamps on the table, and everything was served in the
plainest manner, but the cooking was really good, and it was evident
that the tired woman had been on her feet all her life to some purpose.
Almost every one was hungry, and the contrast to the cold meats, and the
hard rocks, and the disjointed apparatus of the noonday meal, was very
favorable.

Richard had put me between himself and Benny, and he watched my
undiminished supper with disapprobation: but I do not believe he ate
much more himself. He put everything that he thought I might like,
before me, silently: and I think the tired woman (who was waitress as
well as cook), must have groaned over the frequent changing of my plate.

"Do not take any more of that," he said, as I put out my hand for
another cup of coffee.

"Well, what shall I take?" I exclaimed peevishly. But indeed I did not
mean to be peevish, nor did I know quite what I said, I was so