Then she disappeared in the misty twilight and John Ellery surreptitiously wiped his perspiring forehead with his cuff, having in his late desire for the primal necessities forgotten such a trifling incidental as a handkerchief.
"Well, Mr.Ellery," observed Keziah, turning to her guest, or employer, or incumbrance--at present she was more inclined to consider him the latter--"well, Mr.Ellery, this has been kind of unexpected for all hands, ain't it?
If I'd known you was comin' to-day, I'd have done my best to have things ready, but Cap'n Elkanah said not before day after to-morrow and--but there, what's the use of talkin' that way?
I didn't know I was goin' to keep house for you till this very forenoon.

Mercy me, what a day this has been!" The minister smiled rather one-sidedly.
"It's been something of a day for me," he admitted.

"I am ahead of time and I've made a lot of trouble, I'm afraid.

But yesterday afternoon I was ready and, to tell the truth, I was eager to come and see my new home and get at my work.

So I started on the morning train.