CHAPTER X.
Although Mrs.Rexford had been without an indoor servant for several months of the winter, she had been fortunate enough to secure one for the summer.

Her dairy had not yet reached the point of producing marketable wares, but it supplied the family and farm hands with milk and butter, and, since the cows had been bought in spring, the one serving girl had accomplished this amount of dairy work satisfactorily.
The day after Sophia and Harold had made their evening excursion through the Harmon house, this maid by reason of some ailment was laid up, and the cows became for the first time a difficulty to the household, for the art of milking was not to be learnt in an hour, and it had not yet been acquired by any member of the Rexford family.
Harold was of course in the fields.

Sophia went to the village to see if she could induce anyone to come to their aid; but, hard as it was to obtain service at any time, in the weeks of harvest it was an impossibility.

When she returned, she went in by the lane, the yard, and the kitchen door.

All the family had fallen into the habit of using this door more than any other.