The man murmured something and turned his face toward his bowl of stew.

The lady watched him, still smiling, and then, catching Lyddie’s eye, smiled even more broadly, as though to imply that Lyddie was a comrade in some peculiar way.

Indeed, when the men had left the dining room to go into the taproom, she stayed behind, reading a book she had taken from a small silk purse that matched her lovely dress.

“I’ve seen you before, haven’t I?”

Lyddie looked around to see to whom the lady was speaking, then realized the room was empty except for the two of them.

“In late May, when I was headed home to the farm for the summer.”

Lyddie cleared her throat. She had lost the habit of conversation. She nodded.

“You’re not one of the family here.”

Lyddie shook her head.

“You’re a good worker. I can see that.”

Lyddie nodded again to acknowledge the compliment and turned again to loading the dirty dishes on her tray.

“You’d do well in the mill, you know. You’d clear at least two dollars a week. And”—she paused—“you’d be independent.”

She was lying, Lyddie was sure of it. No girl could make that much money in a week’s time.

“It’s hard work, but maybe easier than what you do here, and you’d have some time to yourself, to study or just rest.”

“My mother’s promised me here,” Lyddie said quickly because the door from the kitchen was moving and suddenly Mistress Cutler was in the dining room. The woman looked from the lady to Lyddie, opening her mouth to speak, but Lyddie didn’t wait. She hurried past her into the kitchen.

That night, again she counted the calf money. The lady had been lying, of course. But still, how had a farmer’s daughter bought a silk dress?

4

Frog in a Butter Churn

When Lyddie first came to the tavern, Willie built up the morning fire. But he overslept often and several times the fire went out and someone had to be sent to the neighbor’s for live coals. The mistress was too mean to invest in a tinderbox, but she was mortified to be thought a careless housewife who let her kitchen fire die, so she put Lyddie in charge of it.

The first few nights Lyddie was fearful that she would not wake up early enough in her windowless room and slept on the hearth all night, so as to be sure to be the first up in the morning.