house?'

'Wall, he would be if he was alive,' was the answer, 'but that's what
he hain't ben this five year.'

'Then, do _you_ manage them?'

'Wall, cunnel, I manage 'em better'n he did. Mr. Blumenfeld was an easy
kind o' man; easy to live with, tu; but when you hev other folks to see
to, it don't du no ways to let 'em hev their own head too much. An'
that's what he did. He was a fust-rate gardener and no mistake; he
knowed his business; but the thing he _didn't_ know was folks. So they
cheated him. La, folks ain't like flowers, not 'zactly; or if they be,
as he used to say, there's thorns among 'em now and then and a weed or
two!'

'Blumenfeld?' repeated the colonel. 'You are not German, surely?'

'Wall, I guess I ain't,' said the little woman, 'Not if I know myself.
I ain't sayin' nothin' agin what _he_ was; but la, there's different
naturs in the world, and I'm different. Folks doos say, his folks is
great for gittin' along; but _he_ warn't; that's all I hev to say. He
learned me the garden work, though; that much he did.'

'And now you manage the business?'

'I do so. Won't you hev another cup, cunnel?'

They went back to their disordered house, resisting all further offers
of hospitality. And in time, beds were got out and prepared; how,
Esther could hardly remember afterwards, the confusion was so great;
but it was done, and she lost every other feeling in the joy of repose.

CHAPTER XIX.

_HAPPY PEOPLE_.

At Esther's age nature does her work of recuperation well and fast. It
was early yet, and the dawn just breaking into day, when she woke; and,
calling to mind her purposes formed last night, she immediately got up.
The business of the toilet performed as speedily as possible, she stole
down-stairs and roused Mrs. Barker; and while waiting for her to be
ready, went to the back door and opened it. A fresh cool air blew in
her face; clouds were chasing over the sky before a brisk wind, and
below her rolled the broad Hudson, its surface all in commotion; while
the early light lay bright on the pretty Jersey shore. Esther stood in
a spell of pleasure. This was a change indeed from her Seaforth view,
where the eye could go little further than the garden and the road.
Here was a new scene opening, and a new chapter in life beginning;
Esther's heart swelled. There was a glad mental impulse towards growth
and developement, which readily connected itself with this outward
change, and with this outwa