The Enchanted Barn

by Grace Livingston Hill

"Why, I——" he said, growing a little flushed. "Why, you see I hadn't been out to look things over before. I didn't realize how much better it would be to have those in, you know. But now I intend to do it right away. Father put the whole thing in my hands to do as I pleased. In fact, the place is mine now, and I want to put it in good shape to rent. So don't worry yourself in the least. Things won't go to wrack and ruin so quickly, you know, if there is someone on the place."

He finished his sentence briskly. It seemed quite plausible even to himself now, and he searched about for a change of topic.

"You think you can get on here with the rough floor? You might put padding or something under your carpets, you know, but it will take pretty large carpets——" He looked at her dubiously. To his conventional mind every step of the way was blocked by some impassable barrier. He did not honestly see how she was going to do the thing at all.

"Oh, we don't need carpets!" laughed Shirley gayly. "We'll spread down a rug in front of mother's bed, and another one by the piano, and the rest will be just perfectly all right. We're not expecting to give receptions here, you know," she added mischievously. "We're only campers, and very grateful campers at that, too, to find a nice, clean, empty floor where we can live. The only thing that is troubling me is the cooking. I've been wondering if it will affect the insurance if we use an oil-stove to cook with, or would you rather we got a wood-stove and put the pipe out of one of the windows? I've seen people do that sometimes. Of course we could cook outdoors on a camp-fire if it was necessary, but it might be a little inconvenient rainy days."

Graham gasped at the coolness with which this slip of a girl discoursed about hardships as if they were necessities to be accepted pleasantly and without a murmur. She actually would not be daunted at the idea of cooking her meals on a fire out-of-doors! Cooking indeed! That was of course a question that people had to consider. It had never been a question that crossed his mind before. People cooked—how did they cook? By electricity, gas, coal and wood fires, of course. He had never considered it a matter to be called in any way serious. But now he perceived that it was one of the first main things to be looked out for in a home. He looked down at the waiting girl with a curious mixture of wonder, admiration, and dismay in his face.

"Why, of course you will need a fire and a kitchen," he said as if those things usually grew in houses without any help and it hadn't occurred to him before that they were not indigenous to barns. "Well, now, I hadn't thought of that. There isn't any chimney here, is there? H'm! There ought to be a chimney in every barn. It would be better for the—ah—for the hay, I should think; keep it dry, you know, and all that sort of thing. And then I should think it might be better for the animals. I must look into that matter."

"No, Mr. Graham," said Shirley decidedly. "There is no necessity for a chimney. We can perfectly well have the pipe go through a piece of tin set in the back window if you won't object, and we can use the little oil-stove when it's very hot if that doesn't affect the insurance. We have a gas stove, of course, that we could bring; but there isn't any gas in a barn."

Graham looked around blankly at the cobwebby walls as if expecting gas-jets to break forth simultaneously with his wish.

"No, I suppose not," he said, "although I should think there ought to be. In a barn, you know. But I'm sure there will be no objection whatever to your using any kind of a stove that will work here. This is a stone barn, you know, and I'm sure it won't affect the insurance. I'll find out and let you know."

Shirley felt a trifle uneasy yet about those partitions and the low price of the rent, but somehow the young man had managed to impress her with the fact that he was under no unpleasant delusions concerning herself and that he had the utmost respect for her. He stood looking down earnestly at her for a moment without saying a word, and then he began hesitatingly.