But on Saturday morning, soon after breakfast, Mr. Somers's old gray mare turned up their lane, and Lyddy put on a clean apron and rolled down her sleeves to go out and speak to the school teacher. "That's a very good thing about that lane," 'Phemie remarked, aside. "It is just long enough so that, if we see anybody turn in, we can primp a little before they get to the house." "Miss Bray," said the teacher, hopping out of his buggy and shaking hands, "you see me here, a veritable beggar." "A beggar?" queried Lyddy, in surprise. "Yes, I have come to beg a favor. And a very great one, too." "Why--I----" He laughed and went on to explain--yet his explanation at first puzzled her. "Where do you suppose I slept last night, Miss Bray?" he asked. "In your bed," she returned. "Wrong!" "Is it a joke--or a puzzle?" "Why, I had to sleep in the barn. You see, thus far this term I have boarded with Sam Larribee. But yesterday his boy came down with the measles. He had been out of school for several days--had been visiting the other side of the ridge. They think he caught it there--at his cousin's. "However," continued Mr. Somers, "that does not help me. When I came home from school and heard the doctor's report, I refused to enter the house. We don't want an epidemic of measles at Pounder's School. "So I slept in the barn with Old Molly, here. And now I must find another boarding place. They--er--tell me, Miss Bray, that you intend to take boarders?" "Why--er--yes," admitted Lyddy, faintly. "You have some already?" "Mr. Colesworth and his son. They have just come." "Couldn't you put me--and Molly--up for the rest of the term?" asked the school teacher, laughing. "Why, I don't know but I could," said Lyddy, her business sense coming to her aid. "I--why, yes! I am quite sure about _you_; but about the horse, I do not know." "You surely have a stall to spare?" "Plenty; but no feed." "Oh, I will bring my own grain; and I'll let her pasture in your orchard. She doesn't work hard and doesn't need much forage except what she can glean at this time of year for herself." "Well, then, perhaps it can be arranged," said Lyddy. "Will you come in and see what our accommodations are?" And so that is how another boarder came to Hillcrest Farm. Mr. Somers chose one of the smaller rooms upstairs, and agreed to pay for his own entertainment and pasturage for his horse--six dollars and a half a week. It was a little more than he had been paying at Larribee's, he said--but then, Mr. Somers wanted to come to Hillcrest. He drove away to get his trunk out of the window of his bedroom at the measles-stricken farmhouse down the hill; he would not risk entering by the door for the sake of his other pupils. A little later Lucas drove up from town with Harris Colesworth and his bag. "Say!" whispered the lanky farmer, leaning from his seat to whisper to 'Phemie. "I hear tell you've got school teacher for a boarder, too? Is that so?"