Page:Traveler from Altruria, Howells, 1894.djvu/151

Rh thought that a famous joke, and they laughed with the gratitude that even small favors inspire. "Bring your sister here," I said to the boldest boy, and when he came up with the little woman, I put another copper into her hand. "Look out that the greedy dog doesn't get it," I said, and my gaiety met with fresh applause. "Where do you live?" I asked with some vague purpose of showing the Altrurian the kindliness that exists between our upper and lower classes.

"Over there," said the boy. I followed the twist of his head, and glimpsed a wooden cottage on the border of the forest, so very new that the sheathing had not yet been covered with clapboards. I stood up in the buckboard and saw that it was a story and a half high, and could have had four or five rooms in it. The bare, curtainless windows were set in the unpainted frames, but the front door seemed not to be hung yet. The people meant to winter there, however, for the sod was banked up against the wooden underpinning; a stove-pipe stuck out of the roof of a little wing behind. While I gazed, a young-looking woman came to the door, as if she had been drawn by our talk with the children, and then she jumped down