randmarm!" called out the Captain. "Run right in, Midget."

His wife was _marm_ and his mother _grandmarm_.

Marjorie ran in at the kitchen door and greeted the two occupants of the
roomy kitchen. Captain Rheid had planned his house and was determined
he said that the "women folks" should have room enough to move around in
and be comfortable; he believed in having the "galley" as good a place to
live in as the "cabin."

It was a handsome kitchen, with several windows, a fine stove, a
well-arranged sink, a large cupboard, a long white pine table, three
broad shelves displaying rows of shining tinware, a high mantel with
three brass candlesticks at one end, and a small stone jar of fall
flowers at the other, the yellow floor of narrow boards was glowing with
its Saturday afternoon mopping, and the general air of freshness and
cleanliness was as refreshing as the breath of the sea, or the odor of
the fields.

Marm and grandmarm liked it better.

"Deary me!" ejaculated grandma, "it's an age since you were here."

"A whole week," declared Marjorie, standing on tiptoe to hang up her sack
and hat on a hook near the shelves.

"Nobody much comes in and it seems longer," complained the old lady.

"I think she's very good to come once a week," said Hollis' sad-faced
mother.

"Oh, I like to come," said Marjorie, pushing one of the wooden-bottomed
chairs to grandmother's side.

"It seems to me, things have happened to your house all of a sudden,"
said Mrs. Rheid, as she gave a final rub to the pump handle and hung up
one of the tin washbasins over the sink.

"So it seems to us," replied Marjorie; "mother and I hardly feel at
home yet. It seems so queer at the table with Linnet gone and two
strangers--well, Mr. Holmes isn't a stranger, but he's a stranger at
breakfast time."

"Don't you know how it all came about?" inquired grandmother, who
"admired" to get down to the roots of things.

"No, I guess--I think," she hastily corrected, "that nobody does. We all
did it together. Linnet wanted to go with Miss Prudence and we all
wanted her to go; Mr. Holmes wanted to come and we all wanted him to
come; and then Mr. Holmes knew about Morris Kemlo, and father wanted a
boy to do the chores for winter and Morris wanted to come, because he's
been in a drug store and wasn't real strong, and his mother thought farm
work and sea air together would be good for him."

"And you don't go to school?" said Mrs. Rheid, bringing her work