Erminie ran upstairs to get ready her best spare room for the reception of Alberta; for though Mr. Goldsborough had said that he must leave Washington with his daughter on that same evening, Erminie entertained hopes that he would change his mind, and pass the day and night with them. While she was busy having the fire lighted, the bed linen changed, and the water brought up, thinking all the time how comfortable and happy she would try to make her friend Alberta, whether her stay should be short or long, she received a hasty summons from her own father. She ran downstairs to the lower hall where, to her unbounded astonishment, she saw Farmer Fielding and his daughter Elfrida. They had just been admitted by the servant, and were shaking hands with Dr. Rosenthal, who had come out of the library to receive them. “I am so glad, oh, so glad to see you, my darling Elfie!” exclaimed Erminie, running and catching her little friend in her arms, and kissing her a dozen times before she even thought of the elder visitor. When she did recall his existence, she turned toward him with a blush and a smile, saying: “Excuse me, Mr. Fielding. I am very happy to see you. How do you do?” “Thank you, Miss Minie, I do as well as any man can in my circumstances. I have been——” began the farmer, but he was cut short by the doctor, who finished the sentence for him in his, the doctor’s, own way. —“‘Exposed to a snowstorm, and I am wet and cold;’ that’s what he would say, my Minie. Come right up into my room, farmer, and change your clothes at once.” “Thank ye kindly, no. I’m not wet. We came in a covered wagon as far as the Drover’s Rest, close by here, and only walked the little bit from there here. Bless you, we do look powdered over pretty well, but it’s all on the outside. It don’t penetrate like some things do, doctor. No, Miss Minie; the circumstance to which I allude was the being turned out of my home by a lot of lunatics, who are also trying to turn the Government upside down!” said the farmer, beginning to unbutton his overcoat as he stood. Erminie and her father stared in silence for a moment, and then exclaimed in surprise, and at the same instant: “Driven out of your home, Mr. Fielding!” “Yes, driven out of our home—nothing else. Ask my girl, here!” “Yes—that was it!” broke in Elfie. “Old Virginny was made too hot to hold us—literally too hot. In short, our houses were burned over our heads, and we should have been burned in it if we hadn’t made good our escape.” “You shock me beyond measure!” exclaimed the minister, in consternation. “Oh, my dear Elfie, what a misfortune! How did that happen? But don’t try to tell me here, my darling. Come up to my room and change your clothes first,” said Erminie, in deep sympathy.