Mother Carey's Chickens

information by his own wits and not asking questions like a stupid schoolboy. Like all children of naval officers, the Careys had travelled ever since the

ss rack above the seat. He opened his book, but immediately became interested in a young couple just in front of him. They were carefully

please"; then: "You're on the wrong train!" "Wrong train? Of course I'm not on t

sir, this train do

d the brakeman, and two po

is the

oes it g

ll. Lowell th

t want to g

ith Lowell? It's a g

ointment in Lawren

ty girl on the opposite side from Gilbert, a pink and white, unsophisticated maiden, very much inte

rain, Miss!" sa

etting up and catching her valise frantically. "It can'

't go to North Conway;

on this train and ev

ountain

to stop at North Conway you'd ought

please, and let me

press train; only stops at Lowell

tive wink at the bridegroom who

y to the window, while the bride talked to the groom excitedly about what t

erybody within hearing-that is, anybody who chanced to be on the right tra

ert superciliously. "Perhaps they have never be

road smile, saying in an undertone, "What kind

uess!-You're on the

, and committed himself by making

"That can't be so; the ticket agent told me t

if that'll do you! Folks ain't used to the new station yet, and the ti

' for me," exclaimed Gilbert

is gentleman that wanted to go to Lawrence will get off there, and this young lady t

th as he saw the mirth

take to Greentown," he manage

et agent in the Lowell deepot; h

nly have to wait twenty minutes in the Lowell station before a slow train for Greentown would pick him

er, by the way, but Wheeler; and the Colonel would not allow him to go to the Mansion House, Beulah's one small hotel, but insisted that he should be his guest. That evening he heard from the Colonel the history of the yello

e help of a local carpenter, they succeeded in doing several things to their own complete satisfaction, though it could not be said that they added to the value of the property. The house they regarded merely as a camping-out place, and after they had painted some bedroom floors, set up some cots, bought a kitchen stove and some pine tables and chairs, they regarded that part of the difficulty as solved; expending the rest of the money in turning the dilapidated barn into a place where they could hold high revels of various innocent sorts. The two freshman sons, two boarding-school daughters, and a married sister barely old enough to chaperon her own baby, brought parties of gay young friends w

er to get a tenant. But, land! there ain't no call for houses in Beulah, nor hain't been for twenty years," so Bill Harmon, the storekeeper, told Gilbert. "The house has got a tight roof and good underpin

horse or a cow any

they could dance on. The barn chamber 's full o' their stuff, so 't no hay can go in; altogether there ain't any nameable kind of a fool-trick them young varmints didn't play on these premises. When a farmer's lookin

rent cheap enough so that we could make the necess

or more 'n this summ

we want to

hed Harmon. "Well, it's been a long time s

od could be stretched a little further in this locality), "I tell

usin, too, who is dependent on us. We have nothing but a small pension and the interest on five thousand dollars life insurance. Mother s

s he stood there uttering his boyish confidences with great friendlines

ake terms with Mrs. Carey," said the Colonel. "If you'll fix a reasonable

ittle insurance on his buildings, tho' he ain't had any up to now. On the other hand, if he can get a tenant that'll put on a few shingles and clapboards now and then, or a coat o' paint 'n' a roll o' wall paper, his premises won't go

harlestown house was seven hundred dollars a year, and the last words of his mother had been to the effect that two hundred w

r advice, Colonel?

had seen Beulah real estate fall a peg a year for twenty successive years),

"My mother left the matter of rent to my judgment, and w

r wouldn't cut much of a figure in a court o' law!" chuckled old

e dignity under the storekeeper's attacks. "I'd like to take some

in doesn't go till two o'clock. I'll give you

cupboards all over the house, and at the fireplaces. He "paced off" all the rooms and set down their proportions in his note-book; he even decided as to who should occupy each room, and for what purposes they should be used, his judgment in eve

ent," she whispered, "but it's no use, I cannot endure the suspense about the house a moment longer than is necessary. Just telegraph us yes or no, and we shall g

oon a telegraph boy came through th

. A moment later the two girls and Peter (who for once didn't count) gazed at their

y banners. Have accom

BER

"The yellow house is the H

erly, his nose quivering as it always did in exci

d," exclaimed Kitty, cl

yellow house b

, as she looked at the telegram over her mother's shoulder. "They're no

g, but hoped that Nancy had not notic