But as these two were going down the broad stairway, Cicely drew back, and suddenly turning, addressed Miriam.
"I have been wanting to ask a great many questions," she said, "but I have felt ashamed to do it.

I have nearly always lived in the country, but I know hardly anything about barns and cows and stables and hay and all that.

Do the hens lay their eggs up there in your hay ?" Miriam smiled gravely.
"It is very hard to find out," she said, "where they do lay their eggs.
Some days we do not get any at all, though I suppose they lay them, just the same.

There is a henhouse, but they never go in there." Cicely moved toward the stairway, and then she stopped; she cast her eyes toward the mass of hay in the mow above, and then she gave a little sigh.

Miriam looked at her and understood her perfectly, moreover she pitied her.
"How is it," said she as they went down the stairs, "that you lived in the country, and do not know about country things ?" "We lived in suburbs," she said.