"Teacher!" repeated Sarah. "Wh-what did she come for? Have you then not been smart?" "For to see us," said Louisa Ellen impatiently. "She is coming for company. She--" Sarah had crossed the lane, a milk-pail in either hand. "Come," she called, in a voice which was meant to be a whisper, but which Miss Miflin, waiting on the broad doorstep, heard clearly. "Hurry yourselves, and fix a little up. Perhaps--" Sarah could scarcely speak for excitement. "Perhaps she will stay for supper." A moment later, she opened the front door. Her black hair was brushed back a little more closely to her head, her face shone, the great white apron which she had hastily put on over her gingham one was much longer than her dress, and from the back her gray-stockinged ankles could be seen outlined against it in pathetic thinness. "Come in, teacher," she begged shyly. "Come once into the room [parlor] and I will hurry make a fire." "Oh no," said Miss Miflin. "I'll come back to the kitchen with you. I didn't come to be company. I came to bring the twins home, and the gun." "The gun!" repeated Sarah. "Did they then take the gun along? Come in. It doesn't look here so good like always. I--I didn't work this afternoon so very much. I--" And Sarah ushered Miss Miflin into the immaculate kitchen. Miss Miflin breathed a sigh of relief. The chill of the house had struck into her heart. Could William have lived _here_? Then she saw the glow of the fire, the bright rag carpet, the blooming geraniums in the window. This looked like William. Miss Miflin put out her hand and drew Ellen Louisa, in a clean white apron, to her side. She, too, was William's. "I wonder whether you would let me stay for supper?" she asked. The glow in Sarah's face answered her. "If it is you good enough," answered Sarah humbly. "Good enough!" laughed Miss Miflin. She pulled off her over-shoes and slipped out of her coat. She had no home of her own, and had been boarding at a country hotel for three years. "But you children don't stay here alone at night!" "Yes," said Sarah. "But aren't you afraid?" "Ach, no! Nobody would do us anything," stammered Sarah. She could not tell this stranger any of their troubles. "But haven't you a little brother?" Miss Miflin looked round the kitchen. "Yes, ma'am," answered Sarah. She suddenly put out her hand, and laid it on Louisa Ellen's shoulder, and Louisa Ellen closed her lips as though she had meant to speak, but had changed her mind. "Yes, Albert. He is now by my uncle." "And don't any of your uncle's people come to stay with you at night?" "Ach, no!" answered Sarah. Suddenly she felt her voice give way. There was something in Miss Miflin's brown, astonished eyes which made her feel that she might cry. But that would never do. "T-take a ch-chair. I-I guess you had to laugh at how the twins learned their lessons. I taught them while they were at home." "They learned them well," replied Miss Miflin. "Now I am going to help get supper."