e and found Lydia
Anderson stretched on the ground before the door of Luella Miller's
deserted house, and she was quite dead.

The next night there was a red gleam of fire athwart the moonlight and
the old house of Luella Miller was burned to the ground. Nothing is now
left of it except a few old cellar stones and a lilac bush, and in
summer a helpless trail of morning glories among the weeds, which might
be considered emblematic of Luella herself.

THE SOUTHWEST CHAMBER

"That school-teacher from Acton is coming to-day," said the elder Miss
Gill, Sophia.

"So she is," assented the younger Miss Gill, Amanda.

"I have decided to put her in the southwest chamber," said Sophia.

Amanda looked at her sister with an expression of mingled doubt and
terror. "You don't suppose she would--" she began hesitatingly.

"Would what?" demanded Sophia, sharply. She was more incisive than her
sister. Both were below the medium height, and stout, but Sophia was
firm where Amanda was flabby. Amanda wore a baggy old muslin (it was a
hot day), and Sophia was uncompromisingly hooked up in a starched and
boned cambric over her high shelving figure.

"I didn't know but she would object to sleeping in that room, as long
as Aunt Harriet died there such a little time ago," faltered Amanda.

"Well!" said Sophia, "of all the silly notions! If you are going to
pick out rooms in this house where nobody has died, for the boarders,
you'll have your hands full. Grandfather Ackley had seven children;
four of them died here to my certain knowledge, besides grandfather and
grandmother. I think Great-grandmother Ackley, grandfather's mother,
died here, too; she must have; and Great-grandfather Ackley, and
grandfather's unmarried sister, Great-aunt Fanny Ackley. I don't
believe there's a room nor a bed in this house that somebody hasn't
passed away in."

"Well, I suppose I am silly to think of it, and she had better go in
there," said Amanda.

"I know she had. The northeast room is small and hot, and she's stout
and likely to feel the heat, and she's saved money and is able to board
out summers, and maybe she'll come here another year if she's well
accommodated," said Sophia. "Now I guess you'd better go in there and
see if any dust has settled on anything since it was cleaned, and open
the west windows and let the sun in, while I see to that cake."

Amanda went to her task in the southwest chamber while her sister
stepped he