"And, of course, your father didn't come up here last night?"
"Shucks! O' course not," replied the young farmer. "Ain't no vinegar buyer around in this neighborhood now--an' 'specially not at night. Dad ain't much for goin' out in the evenin', nohow. He does sit up an' read arter we're all gone to bed sometimes. But it couldn't be dad you heard up here--no, Miss."
So the puzzle remained a puzzle. However, the Bray girls had so much to do, and so much to think of that, after all, the mystery of the night occupied a very small part of 'Phemie's thought.
Lyddy had something--and a very important something, she thought--on her mind. It had risen naturally out of the talk the girls had had when they first went to bed the evening before. 'Phemie had wished for a houseful of company to make Hillcrest less lonely; the older sister had seized upon the idea as a practical suggestion.
Why not fill the big house--if they could? Why not enter the lists in the land-wide struggle for summer boarders?
First of all, however, Lyddy wanted to see the house--the chambers upstairs especially; and she proposed to her sister, when their morning's work was done, that they make a tour of discovery.
"Lead on," 'Phemie replied, eagerly. "I hope we find a softer bed than that straw mattress--and one that won't tickle so! Aunt Jane said we could do just as we pleased with things here; didn't she?"
"Within reason," agreed Lyddy. "And that's all very well up to a certain point, I fancy. But I guess Aunt Jane doesn't expect us to make use of the whole house. We will probably find this west wing roomy enough for our needs, even when father comes."
They ventured first up the stairs leading to the rooms in this wing. There were two nice ones here and a wide hall with windows overlooking the slope of the mountainside toward Bridleburg. They could see for miles the winding road up which they had climbed the day before.
"Yes, this wing will do very nicely for _us_," Lyddy said, thinking aloud. "We can make that room downstairs where we're sleeping, our sitting-room when it comes warm weather; and that will give us all the rest of the house----"
"All but the old doctor's offices," suggested 'Phemie, doubtfully. "There are three of them."