They were awake betimes--and without the help of the alarm clock. It was pretty cold in the two rooms; but they threw kindling on the coals and soon the flames were playing tag through the interlacing sticks that 'Phemie heaped upon the fire.
The kettle was soon bubbling again, while Lyddy mixed batter cakes. A little bed of live coals was raked together in front of the main fire and on this a well greased griddle was set, where the cakes baked to a tender brown and were skillfully lifted off by 'Phemie and buttered and sugared.
What if a black coal or two _did_ snap over the cakes? And what if 'Phemie's hair _did_ get smoked and "smelly?" Both girls declared cooking before an open fire to be great fun. They had yet, however, to learn a lot about "how our foremothers cooked."
"I don't for the life of me see how they ever used that brick oven," said Lyddy, pointing to the door in the side of the chimney. "Surely, that hole in the bricks would never heat from _this_ fire."
"Ask Lucas," advised 'Phemie, and as though in answer to that word, Lucas himself appeared, bearing offerings of milk, eggs, and new bread.
"Huh!" he said, in a gratified tone, sniffing in the doorway. "I told maw you two gals wouldn't go hungry. Ye air a sight too clever."
"Thank you, Lucas," said Lyddy, demurely. "Will you have a cup of tea!"
"No'm. I've had my breakfast. It's seven now and I'll go right t' work cutting wood for ye. That's what ye'll want most, I reckon. And I want to git ye a pile ready, for it won't be many days before we start plowin', an' then dad won't hear to me workin' away from home."
Lyddy went out of doors for a moment and spoke to him from the porch.
"Don't do too much trimming in the orchard, Lucas, till I have a look at the trees. I have a book about the care of an old orchard, and perhaps I can make something out of this one."
"Plenty of other wood handy, Miss Lyddy," declared the lanky young fellow. "And it'll be easier to split than apple and peach wood, too."
'Phemie, meanwhile, had said she would run in and find the candle she had dropped in her fright the night before; but in truth it was more for the purpose of seeing the east wing of the old house by daylight--and that skeleton.