CHAPTER XVI.
Sophia was sitting with Mrs.Rexford on the sofa that stood with its back to the dining-room window.

The frame of the sofa was not turned, but fashioned with saw and knife and plane; not glued, but nailed together.

Yet it did not lack for comfort; it was built oblong, large, and low; it was cushioned with sacking filled with loose hay plentifully mixed with Indian grass that gave forth a sweet perfume, and the whole was covered with a large neat pinafore of such light washing stuff as women wear about their work on summer days.

Sophia and her step-mother were darning stockings.

The homesickness of the household was rapidly subsiding, and to-day these two were not uncomfortable or unhappy.