“We saved enough out of exchanging the grand piano to pay all the expenses down here, and all our railway fares, and everything so far, in the way of boards and nails and Osh Popham’s labor,” recalled Gilbert.

“Yes, and we are still eating the grand piano at the end of two months, but it’s about gone, isn’t it, Muddy?” Nancy asked.

“About gone, but it has been a great help, and our dear little old-fashioned square is just as much of a comfort.—­Of course there’s the tapestry and the Van Twiller landscape Uncle gave me; they may yet be sold.”

“Somebody’ll buy the tapestry, but the Van Twiller’ll go hard,” and Gilbert winked at Nancy.

“A picture that looks just the same upside down as the right way about won’t find many buyers,” was Nancy’s idea.

“Still it is a Van Twiller, and has a certain authentic value for all time!”

“The landscapes Van Twiller painted in the dark, or when he had his blinders on, can’t be worth very much,” insisted Gilbert.  “You remember the Admiral thought it was partridges nesting in the underbrush at twilight, and then we found Joanna had cleaned the dining room and hung the thing upside down.  When it was hung the other end up neither father nor the Admiral could tell what it was; they’d lost the partridges and couldn’t find anything else!”

“We shall get something for it because it is a Van Twiller,” said Mrs. Carey hopefully; “and the tapestry is lovely.—­Now we have been doing all our own work to save money enough to make the house beautiful; yet, as Cousin Ann says, it does not belong to us and may be taken away at any moment after the year is up.  We have never even seen our landlord, though Mr. Harmon has written to him.  Are we foolish?  What do you think, Julia?”

XV

BELONGING TO BEULAH

The Person without a Fault had been quietly working at her embroidery, raising her head now and then to look at some extraordinary Carey, when he or she made some unusually silly or fantastic remark.

“I’m not so old as Gilbert and Nancy, and I’m only a niece,” she said modestly, “so I ought not to have an opinion.  But I should get a maid-of-all-work at once, so that we shouldn’t all be drudges as we are now; then I should not spend a single cent on the house, but just live here in hiding, as it were, till better times come and till we are old enough to go into society.  You could scrimp and save for Nancy’s coming out, and then for Kathleen’s.  Father would certainly be well long before then, and Kathleen and I could debut together!”

“Who wants to ‘debut’ together or any other way,” sniffed Nancy scornfully.  “I’m coming out right here in Beulah; indeed I’m not sure but I’m out already!  Mr. Bill Harmon has asked me to come to the church sociable and Mr. Popham has invited me to the Red Men’s picnic at Greentown.  Beulah’s good for something better than a place to hide in!  We’ll have to save every penny at first, of course, but in three or four years Gilly and I ought to be earning something.”