The girl colored before Jane's friendly glance. She longed to tell the whole truth, for by nature she was a person of great frankness. Since, however, Martin had not seen fit to enlighten his sisters, perhaps it was wiser that she should not do so. He may have had his own reasons for keeping them in ignorance. "Lucy!" "Yes, I'm coming, Aunt Ellen." "Do go along," implored Jane; "she may suspect something. I'll leave the house all picked up, tidy as a pin. You won't forget to wave to Martin if you want him." "No. Thank you a thousand times, Ja--Miss Howe." "Jane'll do," smiled the woman kindly. "I'm more used to it." Catching her visitor's hand in a quick grasp, Lucy pressed it warmly and then sped up the stairs. "Whatever have you been putterin' about so long?" queried Ellen petulantly. "I was clearing up." "That's good. I guess the place needed it," sighed her aunt. "I warn't half through straightenin' things in the kitchen. I thought I heard you talkin'." "Heard me?" "Probably 'twas a notion. My head kinder buzzes." Then she suddenly turned suspiciously on the girl, adding sharply: "You ain't been over to the Howes'?" "No." "That's right. An' don't you go, neither. We don't need no help from them." A pause followed. "Did you want me for something?" Lucy at last inquired, after waiting for her aunt to speak. "Yes, I did." Nevertheless Ellen made no further remark for some time. Finally she burst out fretfully: "I'm almighty afraid I'll have to hire in somebody, after all." The last two words were peculiarly illuminating. "You mean somebody to help?" "Yes," grumbled the older woman with peevish shrillness. "We've got a pull ahead of us; I know that well enough. An' I s'pose you ain't got enough muscle to lift me. Likely you couldn't even raise me up on the pillows if you was to try. How you ever got me upstairs beats all." Lucy hastily turned her head aside. "They do say, though," continued Ellen, "that sometimes when folks are scat to death they can do things they can't do any other time. You were scat, I s'pose." "Yes, I was." "Mebbe you was scat worse when you found I warn't dead," chuckled the sick woman disagreeably. The girl did not reply. Ellen paused; then seemed to regret her ill humor. "Now 'bout a woman----" She halted abruptly. "Have you any one in mind?" Lucy asked timidly. "No," returned Ellen emphatically, "I haven't. I hate all the folks in this town about equally--that is, all except the Howes," she concluded with significant emphasis. "Isn't there a nurse in the village?" "There's Melviny Grey." "Is she a nurse?" the girl inquired innocently. "Melviny ain't never been classified," retorted Ellen grimly. "She's neither fish, flesh nor fowl. She's taught school; laid out the dead; an' done the Lord only knows what durin' her lifetime. She can turn her hand to most anything; an' they do say she's mum as an oyster, which is a virtue out of the common in a woman."