had hurried across the river to nurse a seriously ill
neighbor.

"I may be back tomorrer and I may not be back till the day after
never! I declare I'm all of a fluster, what with Mis' Calvert goin'
away sort of leavin' me in charge--though them old colored folks o'
her'n didn't like that none too well!--and me havin' to turn my back
on duty this way. But sickness don't wait for time nor tide and
typhoid's got to be tended mighty sharp; and I couldn't nohow refuse
to go to one Mis' Judge Satterlee's nieces, she that's been as
friendly with me as if I was a regular 'ristocratic like herself. No,
when a body's earned a repitation for fetchin' folks through typhoid
you got to live up to it. Sorry, Dolly C.; but I'll stow the girls,
Barry and Clarry and the rest, 'round amongst the neighbors
somewhere, 'fore I start. As for you, Alfy----"

"Oh, Mrs. Babcock! Don't take Alfy away! Please, please don't!" cried
Dorothy, fairly clutching at the matron's flying skirts, already
disappearing through the doorway.

Mrs. Babcock switched herself free and answered through the opening:

"All right. Alfy can do as she likes. She can go down help tend store
to Liza Jane's, t'other village, where she's been asked to go more'n
once, or finish her visit to you. Ary one suits me so long as you
don't let nor hender me no more."

Not all of this reply was distinct, for it was finished on the floor
above, whither the energetic farm-wife had sped to "pack her duds";
but enough was heard to set Alfaretta skipping around the room in an
ecstasy of delight, exclaiming:

"I'm to be to the House Party! Oh! I'm to be to the Party!"

But this little episode had been by daylight, and now the dusk had
fallen. The great parlors were shut and dark. Prudent old Ephraim had
declared:

"I ain't gwine see my Miss Betty's substance wasted, now she's outer
de way he'se'f. One lamp in de hall's ernuf fo' seein' an' doan' none
yo chillen's go foolin' to ast mo'."

So the long halls were dim and full of shadows; the wind had risen and
howled about the windows, which were being carefully shuttered by the
servants against the coming storm which Dinah prophesied would prove
the "ekernoctial" and a "turr'ble one"; and to banish the loneliness
which now tormented her, Dorothy proposed:

"Let's go into the library. There's a fine fire on the hearth and the
big lamp is stationary. Ephraim can't find fault with us for using
that. We'll make out a list of the fol