"Nary one, not yet."
"Expectin' any?"
"Nary one. Don't know nobody to expect."
"But you think it would be all right if you did have some one? Your er—owner—young Minot, I mean, wouldn't object?"
"Object! No, no. He told me to. 'I should think you'd die livin' here alone,' he says. 'Why don't you take a boarder? I would if I was you.'"
Sears Kendrick stopped looking at the room and its furniture and turned his gaze upon his former cook.
"Take a boarder?" he repeated. "Did Ogden Minot tell you to take a boarder? And do you think he meant it?"
"Sartin sure he meant it. He don't care what I do—in reason, of course."
"Humph!... Well, then, Judah, why don't you take one?"
"Eh? Take one what? A boarder? Who'd I take, for thunder's sakes?"