As for entering the house--well, I considered it, in a way, my house; at
least, I knew I should live in it for a time, and--"

"Live in it?" repeated Keziah. "LIVE in it? Why! mercy on us! you don't
mean to say you're--"

She stopped to look at Grace. That young lady was looking at her with
an expression which, as it expressed so very much, is beyond ordinary
powers of description.

"My name is Ellery," said the stranger. "I am the minister--the new
minister of the Regular society."

Then even Keziah blushed.


CHAPTER III

IN WHICH KEZIAH ASSUMES A GUARDIANSHIP


Didama would have given her eyeteeth--and, for that matter, the entire
upper set--to have been present in that parsonage sitting room when the
Rev. John Ellery made his appearance. But the fates were against Didama
that day and it was months afterwards before she, or any of what
Captain Zeb Mayo called the "Trumet Daily Advertisers," picked up a hint
concerning it. Keziah and Grace, acquainted with the possibilities of
these volunteer news gatherers, were silent, and the Reverend John,
being in some respects a discreet young man with a brand-new ministerial
dignity to sustain, refrained from boasting of the sensation he had