"Oh, sometimes you're old and haven't saved any money," said Richard absently. "Sometimes you're old and sick and have to stop earning. Lots of people lose those who would have supported them--say their children. And now and then parents die and leave a family of kids who must be brought up as wards of charity." Rosemary hardly noticed when he took the reins from Shirley and turned Solomon into a beautiful tree-lined road in perfect condition. She was thinking that "wards of charity" did not sound half as happy as when one said "the Gay children." "Here we are!" announced Richard, stopping before a handsome red brick building with a great white front porch and a fine stretch of lawn before it. "How do you do, Mrs. Carson? Mr. Hildreth thought you might like some early tomatoes for supper." A stout gray-haired woman had come out from the beautifully paneled door and Richard performed the introductions. Mrs. Carson was voluble in her thanks and suggested that the "young ladies" might like to go through the buildings. "If you'll come, too," whispered Rosemary to Richard, pressing closer to him. Mrs. Carson was a rather handsome woman and there was efficiency and competency in every crisp fold of her immaculate gingham dress and every neat coil of her iron-gray hair. No doubt the Board of Freeholders was to be congratulated on its choice of a matron for the poor farm--but it was awe she inspired in the minds of the three girls before her. Not for worlds would they have left the safe companionship of sunny, kind-hearted Richard and gone on a tour alone with this formidable personage. "Where are the people who live here?" whispered Sarah, when they had been led through spotless corridors, glistening with varnish and covered with bright linoleum, into orderly rooms stiffly furnished and showing no signs of use and out again on to the porch tiled in red and supported with white columns. It was a question Rosemary had been debating, too. "Oh, they're out back--there's a porch there they can use," said Mrs. Carson carelessly. "Some of 'em spend the time in their dormitories--just puttering around. The old ones are so messy I can't have them out here or it would never be clean; and the young ones work in the kitchen, mornings. Now if you'll come upstairs, I'll show you the bathrooms your brother had installed for us." Richard had explained that they were Doctor Hugh's sisters and Mrs. Carson was determined to show them every courtesy. They saw the large kitchen at last, with three young girls, in blue dresses made exactly alike, scraping carrots, and four old women peeling potatoes, and then went out to the back lawn where half a dozen old people dozed in the glare of the hot sun. "You needn't bother to speak to them," said Mrs. Carson. "Most of them are deaf." But Rosemary, catching several indignant glances darted at the speaker, doubted this.