he homestead belonged to Lewis's
father, and in the natural course of events was destined to become
Lewis's property.

Great was the excitement at Homestead Farm when a telegram arrived
announcing the imminent arrival of owner and son.

"Land sakes! William," gasped Mrs. Tuck, "in two days! You'll hev to
send 'em a telegram tellin' 'em it can't be done nohow. I told you my
conscience was a-prickin' me over the spring cleanin'. Seems like
Providence was a-jostlin' my elbow all these days, and I was jest too
ornery to pay heed."

"In two days, it says," repeated William; "and we can't send no telegram
because there ain't no address."

Tuck and his wife had no children. They occupied the kitchen for a
living-room and the big bedroom over it at night. The main part of the
house was shut up. The hired hands occupied rooms in the barn that had
once been the quarters of a numerous stable force, for the Leightons had
always gone in for horses, as two or three long-standing trotting
records at neighboring county fairs gave evidence.

Mrs. Tuck was not long in facing the inevitable. First of all she
commandeered all the labor on the farm; then she sent a call for aid to
a couple of neighbors. Within an hour all the green shutters had swung
wide on their creaking hinges, and the window-sashes were up. Out of the
open windows poured some dust and a great deal of commotion. Before
night the big house was spick and span from garret to cellar.

"Does seem to me," said Mrs. Tuck, as she placed a very scrappy supper
before William, "like dust is as human as guinea pigs. Where you say it
can't get in, it jest breeds."

"Now you sit down and take it easy, Mrs. Tuck," said William, who had
married late in life and never got on familiar terms with his wife. "I
reckon them men-folks ain't so took with reddin' up as you think they
be."

"Oh, I know," said the tired, but by no means exhausted, Mrs. Tuck, "I
ain't forgettin' their innards, ef thet's what you're thinkin' of. You
just tell Silas to kill four broilers, an' I'll clean 'em to-night.
Thet'll give me a start, and to-morow I c'n do a few dozen pies. I _hev_
got some mince-meat, thank goodness! an' you c'n get me in some of them
early apples in the morning. Seems like I'm not going to sleep a wink
for thinkin'."

Lewis and Leighton did not motor from New York to the Homestead Farm, as
ten years later they might have done. Motors, while common, were still
in that stage of dev