her shoulder, and there was Sister, sniffling and occasionally
rubbing her wrist into her red eyes as she scraped the tower of
plates from the dinner table.

"My soul and body!" gasped Mother Atterson, almost dropping her
supper on the floor. "There's Sister--and there's Old Lem Camp!
Whatever will I do with 'em?"

Meanwhile Hiram Strong had already left for the farm on the
Wednesday previous. The other boarders knew nothing about his
agreement with Mother Atterson; he had agreed to go to the place
and begin work, and take care of the stock and all, "choring for
himself", as the good lady called it, until she could complete
her city affairs and move herself and her personal chattels to
the farm.

Hiram bore a note to the woman who had promised to care for the
Atterson place, and money to pay her what the boarding-house
mistress had agreed.

"You can 'bach' it in the house as well as poor old Uncle Jeptha
did, I reckon," this woman told the youth.

She showed him where certain provisions were--the pork barrel,
ham and bacon of the old man's curing, and the few vegetables
remaining from the winter's store.

"The cow was about gone dry, anyway," said the woman,
Mrs. Larriper, who was a widow and lived with her married
daughter some half-mile down the road toward Scoville, "so I