the living-room, where the main work
of life went on. Beyond this were a kitchen and some sheds.

Baby Hester sat on the floor and looked amazed at the irruption, then
began to whimper. Her mother hushed her up sharply, and she crept out to
the living-room.

"We may as well all go out," said Mrs. Manning. "I must see about
supper, for that creature we have doesn't know when the kettle boils,"
and she led the way.

Elizabeth began to spread the tea table. A youngish woman was working in
the kitchen. The Mannings had taken one of the town's poor, who at this
period were farmed out. Sarah Lewis was not mentally bright, and
required close watching, which she certainly received at the Mannings'.
Doris stood by the window with Ruth, until the baby cried, when her
mother told her to take Hester out in the kitchen and give her some
supper and put her to bed. And then Doris could do nothing but watch
Elizabeth while the elders discussed family affairs, the conversation a
good deal interrupted by rather sharp orders to Sarah in the kitchen,
and some not quite so sharp to Elizabeth.

Supper was all on the table when the men came in. There were Mr.
Manning, Foster and James, and two hired men.

"You must wait, James," said his mother--"you and Elizabeth."

The guests were ranged at one end of the table, the hired men and Foster
at the other. Elizabeth took some knitting and sat down by the window.
The two younger children remained in the kitchen.

Doris was curiously interested, though she felt a little strange. Her
eyes wandered to Elizabeth, and met the other eyes, as curious as hers.
Elizabeth had straight light hair, cut square across the neck, and
across her forehead in what we should call a bang. "It was time to let
it grow long," her mother admitted, "but it was such a bother, falling
in her eyes." Her frock, whatever color it had been, was now faded to a
hopeless, depressing gray, and her brown gingham apron tied at the waist
betrayed the result of many washings. She was thin and pale, too, and
tired-looking. Times had not been good, and some of the crops were not
turning out well, so every nerve had to be strained to pay for the new
lot, in order that the interest on the amount should not eat up
everything.

Afterward the men went to look to the cattle, and Mrs. Manning, when she
had given orders a while in the kitchen, took her guests out on the
front porch. She sat and knit as she talked to them, as the moon was