“Put him right down, please,” she said. “He'll be better soon as he's put down. He's never traveled before and it's kind of strange to him. He'll be all right and I'll come back and let him out pretty soon. Mayn't I, Mr.—Mr. Chase?”
“Huh? Yes, yes, you can if you want to, I cal'late. I don't want to, that's sure.”
He deposited the basket on the floor at his feet. Mary-'Gusta looked at it rather dubiously and for an instant seemed about to speak, but she did not, and followed Mr. Hamilton from the kitchen, through the adjoining room, evidently the dining-room, and up a narrow flight of stairs.
“I cal'late we'll put her in the spare room, won't we, Isaiah?” queried Zoeth, with some hesitation.
Isaiah grunted. “Guess so,” he said, ungraciously, “Ain't no other place that I know of. Bed ain't made, though.”
The spare room was of good size, and smelled shut up and musty, as spare rooms in the country usually do. It was furnished with a bureau, washstand, and two chairs, each painted in a robin's egg blue with sprays of yellow roses. There were several pictures on the walls, their subjects religious and mournful. The bed was, as Mr. Chase had said, not made; in fact it looked as if it had not been made for some time.
“I've been cal'latin' to make up that bed for more'n a month,” explained Isaiah. “Last time 'twas unmade was when Zoeth had that minister from Trumet here of a Saturday and Sunday. Every day I've cal'lated to make up that bed, but I don't seem to get no time. I'm so everlastin' busy I don't get time for nothin', somehow.”
“I can make the bed,” declared Mary-'Gusta, eagerly. “I can make beds real well. Mrs. Hobbs told me so—once.”
The two men looked at each other. Before either could speak a tremendous racket broke out on the floor below, a sound of something—or somebody—tumbling about, a roar in a human voice and a feline screech. Mary-'Gusta rushed for the stairs.
“I knew he would,” she said, frantically. “I was afraid somebody would. It was RIGHT in front of the door. Oh! David, dear! I'm a-comin'! I'm a-comin'!”