something not well -- not
right?"

"The security reaches further back," said Winthrop.

"You forget," said his mother, "he could not do that; or could
not persist in it."

Rufus walked, and the others sat still and looked at the fire,
till the opening of the door let in Mr. Landholm and a cold
blast of air; which roused the whole party. Winthrop put more
wood on the fire; Mr. Landholm sat down in the corner and made
himself comfortable; and Mrs. Landholm fetched an enormous tin
pan of potatoes and began paring them. Rufus presently stopped
behind her chair, and said softly, "What's that for, mother?"

"For your breakfast to-morrow, sir."

"Where is Karen?"

"In bed."

"Why don't you let her do them, mother?"

"She has not time, my son."

Rufus stood still and looked with a discontented face at the
thin blue-veined fingers in which the coarse dirty roots were
turning over and over.

"I've got a letter from my friend Haye to-day," Mr. Landholm
said.

"What Haye is that?" said his wife.

"What Haye? --there's only one that I know of; my old friend
Haye -- you've heard me speak of him a hundred times. I used to
know him long ago in Mannahatta when I lived at Pillicoddy;
and we have been in the Legislature together, time and again."

"I remember now," said Mrs. Landholm paring her potatoes.
"What does he want?"

"What do you guess he wants?"

"Something from the farm, I suppose."

"Not a bit of it."

"Mr. Haye of Asphodel?" said Rufus.

"Asphodel? no, of Mannahatta; -- he used to be at Asphodel."

"What does he want, sir?"

"I am going to tell your mother by and by. It's her concern."

"Well tell it," said Mrs. Landholm.

"How would you like to have some company in the house this
summer?"

Mrs. Landholm laid the potatoe and her knife and her hands
down in the pan and looking up asked, "What sort of company?"

"You know he has no wife this many years?"

"Yes --"

"Well -- he's a couple of little girls that he wants to put
somewhere in the country this summer, for their health, I
understand."

Mrs. Landholm took up her knife again and pared potatoes
diligently.

"Does he want to send them here?"

"He intimates as much; and I have no doubt he would be very
glad. It wouldn't be a losing concern to us, neither. He would
be willing to pay well, and he can afford it."

"What has he done with his own place, at Asphodel?" said
Winthrop.

"Sold it, he tells me. Didn't agree with his daug