“Wrong!”
“Is it a joke–or a puzzle?”
“Why, I had to sleep in the barn. You see, thus far this term I have boarded with Sam Larribee. But yesterday his boy came down with the measles. He had been out of school for several days–had been visiting the other side of the ridge. They think he caught it there–at his cousin’s.
“However,” continued Mr. Somers, “that does not help me. When I came home from school and heard the doctor’s report, I refused to enter the house. We don’t want an epidemic of measles at Pounder’s School.
“So I slept in the barn with Old Molly, here. And now I must find another boarding place. They–er–tell me, Miss Bray, that you intend to take boarders?”
“Why–er–yes,” admitted Lyddy, faintly.
“You have some already?”
“Mr. Colesworth and his son. They have just come.”
“Couldn’t you put me–and Molly–up for the rest of the term?” asked the school teacher, laughing.
“Why, I don’t know but I could,” said Lyddy, her business sense coming to her aid. “I–why, yes! I am quite sure about you; but about the horse, I do not know.”