"_Sophronisba?_ What! Another one? Good God!" cried the doctor. "All right! Get a poodle. Keep the cats. Get a parrot--and an orphan with the itch--and a hyena--and a blunderbuss! _Her name is Sophronisba_!--I--oh, Lord, where's Jelnik? I have got to go and warn Jelnik!" And he made for the door. At that Alicia laughed. Peal upon peal, like silver bells, irrepressibly, infectiously, irresistibly, Alicia laughed. She cries with her eyes open and her mouth shut, and she laughs with her eyes shut and her mouth open. The effect is beyond all words enchanting. The doctor paused in his headlong flight. "All right: laugh!" he said, darkly. "But I shall warn Jelnik, none the less!" And muttering: "_Sophronisba!_ Lord have mercy on us! _Sophronisba!_" he departed hastily. "What a nice neighbor!" commented Alicia. She added, musingly: "Sophy, this is an enchanted place--a place where one has good meals, bad advice, and black cats showered on one, free and gratis. All one has to do is to stand still and take things as they come!" "And hope one won't follow in the footsteps of one's predecessor, who was an unmitigated old devil." "At least," said Alicia, laughing, "_he_'ll never live to be an old woman, will he, Sophy?" "The man has the tact of a cannibal--" "The shoulders of a Hercules--" "An abominable temper--" "And a beautiful beard. Somehow, Sophy, I rather approve of a beard, on somebody his size. I decidedly approve of a beard!" "If his miserable hens come over here, I shall most certainly--" "Keep the eggs. We'll tell him so when he comes again." "Comes again? What, and my name Sophronisba?" "My own grandmother had the second sight; and _I_ don't need spectacles," said Alicia. "Sophy, that man has come into our lives to stay. I feel it in my bones! It's not an unpleasant feeling," she finished gracelessly. When Unc' Adam presently put in his appearance, he was profoundly impressed and respectful: we were brisk, unhaunted, and unafraid, after a night in Hynds House! The three colored women who had come with him, induced by cupidity and curiosity to enter ol' Mis' Scarlett's ill-omened domain, at first hung back. They were plainly prepared to bolt at the first unusual noise. Of the three, one--by name Mary Magdalen--proved to be a heaven-born, predestinated cook; and her we persuaded, by bribery, cajolery, and subornation of scruples, to remain with us permanently. Only, she flatly refused to stay on the place overnight. Darkness shouldn't catch Mary Magdalen under the Scarlett Witch's roof-tree.