Mrs. Pritchett was enthusiastic over the girls taking Mrs. Harrison to the farm, and she could not say enough in praise of it. So Lyddy was glad to get out of the buckboard with Harris Colesworth at the bottom of the lane.
"You all talk too much about it, Mrs. Pritchett!" she cried, when bidding the farmer's wife good-bye. "But I'd be glad to have you come up here as often as you can--and talk on any other subject!" and she ran laughing into the house.
Lyddy feared that Professor Spink would make trouble. At least, he and Harris Colesworth must be at swords' point. And she was sorry now that she had so impulsively given the young chemist her commendation for what he had done for the Widow Harrison.
However, Harris went off at noon, walking to town to take the afternoon train to the city; and as the professor did not show up again until nightfall there was no friction that day at Hillcrest--nor for the rest of the week.
Mrs. Harrison came and got into the work "two-fisted," as she said herself. She was a strong old woman, and had been brought up to work. Lyddy and 'Phemie were at once relieved of many hard jobs--and none too quickly, for the girls were growing thin under the burden they had assumed.
That very week their advertisements brought them a gentleman and his wife with a little crippled daughter. It was getting warm enough now so that people were not afraid to come to board in a house that had no heating arrangements but open fireplaces.
As the numbers of the boarders increased, however, Lyddy did not find that the profit increased proportionately. She was now handling fifty-one dollars and a half each week; but the demands for vegetables and fresh eggs made a big item; and as yet there had been no returns from the garden, although everything was growing splendidly.
The chickens had hatched--seventy-two of them. Mr. Bray had taken up the study of the poultry papers and catalogs, and he declared himself well enough to take entire charge of the fluffy little fellows as soon as they came from the shell. He really did appear to be getting on a little; but the girls watched him closely and could scarcely believe that he made any material gain in health.
With Harris Colesworth's help one Saturday, he had knocked together a couple of home-made brooders and movable runs, and soon the flock, divided in half, were chirping gladly in the spring sunshine on the side lawn.