Had his uncle provided for her?
Was his mother--was his Aunt Kesiah--aware of the truth?
"She missed my letter, I suppose," he replied.

"Has she been long away ?" "Only a week.

She is expected home day after to-morrow." "Then I shall beg you to open the house for me." She had turned back to the old hound, and was bending over to place his bowl of bread and milk on the hearth.

A log fire, in which a few pine branches stood out illuminated like boughs of flame, filled the big stone fireplace, which was crudely whitewashed to resemble the low walls of the room.

A kettle hung on an iron crane before the blaze, and the singing of the water made a cheerful noise amid a silence which struck Gay suddenly as hostile.