Anna talked it over with Miss Penny that night and on Saturday morning Alice came over and watched Anna make bread, cake and cookies. Miss Penny was in the kitchen the greater part of the time and Alice took to the odd, inconsecutive, warm-hearted little lady as warmly as others had always done, so that on a second Saturday they were like three girls together. Alice began to frequent the house at all hours. And Miss Penny, who was one of the best housewives in the two villages and who had taught Rusty and Anna and through them their mother, gave the girl the best of instruction in cooking and all sorts of domestic matters, besides amusing and entertaining her with other stories than the tale of Reuben and the tramp cat which she gravely related to Alice the first time the two were alone together. “O Miss Penny, the days fly by as they never did before and I wake so happy every morning that I am ashamed of myself!” Alice cried one afternoon as she waited for Anna to come from the academy. “Ashamed, Alice?” The girl paled. “Yes, Miss Penny, because of my father. You know about him?” “Yes, dear, I know. At first I was sorry that people in the village should know, but now I really think it best. After all, newcomers are discussed just so much, and--of course there aren’t many newcomers now-a-days--not that there ever were many. Anna’s family were the last to move into Farleigh before you and your mother. That was when Freddy was a baby--Freddy, you know isn’t the one who looks after my pony. That’s Frank. He does very well, but of course Reuben taught him, and Rusty’s brother--and of course, Anna’s--couldn’t help doing well. But I felt as if I ought to sell both the cows. It’s a pity for Seth Miller with all his work to have to keep the milking in mind. There’s only the one cow--Mr. Mudge is keeping the other--and Seth thinks the world of Reuben and knows Reuben would feel terribly to have the other cow disposed of--I don’t mean killed of course, though that is the way they speak of killing poor cats and kittens. And that reminds me, Alice. How is yours?” As Alice would have replied, a peculiar knock sounded on the door. Alice asked if she should answer it. But Miss Penny, whose face had lighted up, said that it was Mr. Langley, and that he would let himself in. “He raps in a peculiar way--it’s really a bar of music. He and Reuben’s father always used it. He--O Mr. Langley, how good you are!” “Good to myself, yes indeed. I am really self-indulgent when I come in here, Miss Penny.” “I appeal to you, Miss Lorraine,” he said as he shook hands with the girl. “Do you consider it an act of goodness or the gratification of a desire for refreshment to come to see Miss Penny?” “It’s a case of receiving wholly on my part,” asserted Alice with a shy smile for Miss Penny. “I interrupted a conversation. Pray go on with it and allow me to listen,” he begged.