relieve her of the bucket she had lifted, she waved him back.

"Don't you _dare_ walk on it--after all my trouble. Go around the
other way."

He obeyed with a meekness that surprised him, but when he reached the
other door she had already emptied her bucket and her roving eye was
seeking new fields to conquer.

"You've got to stop it at once," he insisted.

"It's the least I can do to earn my board. This room must be dusted,
the bed made and--"

"No. I won't have it."

He took her by the elbows and pushed her out of the door to the chair
on the porch into which she sank, red of face and out of breath.

"I'll only rest for a minute," she protested.

"We'll see about that later," he said with a smile. "For the present,
strange as it may seem, you're really going to obey orders!"

She squared her chin at him defiantly.

"Really! Are you sure?"

"Positive!"