"You don't know whether you do or not," Celestina replied with as near an approach to sharpness as she was capable of. "However, there's no call to discuss that now. The chief thing this minute is for you to sit up to the table an' eat your victuals." Docilely the man obeyed. He was hungry it proved, very hungry indeed. With satisfaction Celestina watched every spoonful of food he put to his lips, inwardly gloating as one muffin after another disappeared; and when at last he could eat no more and took his blackened cob pipe from his pocket, she drew a sigh of satisfaction. "There now, if you want to go back to your inventin' you can," she remarked, as she began to clear away the dishes. "You've took aboard enough rations to do you quite a while." Notwithstanding the permission Willie did not immediately avail himself of it but instead lingered uneasily as if something troubled his conscience. "Say, Tiny," he blurted out at length, "if you happen around by the front door and miss the screen don't be scared an' think it's stole. I had to use it fur somethin' last night." "The screen door?" gasped Celestina. "Yes." "But--but--Willie! The door was new this Spring; there wasn't a brack in it." "I know it," was the calm answer. "That's why I took it." "But you could have got nettin' over at the store to-day." "I couldn't wait." Celestina did not reply at once; but when she did she had herself well in hand, and every trace of irritation had vanished from her tone. "Well, we don't often open that door, anyway," she reflected aloud, "so I guess no harm's done. It's a full year since anybody's come to the front door, an' like as not 'twill be another before--" A jangling sound cut short the sentence. "What's that?" exclaimed she aghast. "It's a bell." "I never heard a bell like that in this house." "It's a bell I rigged up one day when you were gone to the Junction," exclaimed Willie hurriedly. "I thought I told you about it." "You didn't." "Well, no matter now," he went on soothingly. "I meant to." "Where is it?" demanded Celestina. "It's in the hall. It's a new front-door bell, that's what it is," proclaimed the inventor, his voice lost in a second deafening peal. "My soul! It's enough to wake the dead!" gasped Celestina, with hands on her ears. "I should think it could be heard from here to Nantucket. What set you gettin' a bell that size, Willie? 'Twould scare any caller who dared to come this way out of a year's growth. I'll have to go an' see who's there, if he ain't been struck dumb on the doorsill. Who ever can it be--comin' to the front door?" With perturbed expectancy she hurried through the passageway, Willie tagging at her heels.