But a bureau and table and a roll of carpet
assured her of its different purpose, and she turned in with a will to
assist in arranging these articles.
Before dark the work was all done. The rheumatic Frenchman was lying on
a shining new bedstead, a box of Pepper Pod Plasters had been placed in
the hands of his delighted wife, a grocery wagon had deposited a load of
goods in the kitchen, the mechanics in gay spirits had driven away, and
Walkirk and I, tired, but triumphant, walked home, leaving behind us a
magical transformation, a pervading smell of paint and damp wall-paper,
and an aged couple as much dazed as delighted with what had happened.
Soon after breakfast the next day, I repaired to the bright and tidy
little cottage, and there I had my reward. Standing near the house a
little in the shadow of a good sized evergreen-tree, which I had ordered
transplanted bodily from the woods into the little yard, I beheld Sylvia
approaching, and with her a sister with a bandaged face whom I rightly
supposed to be the amiable Sister Agatha.
When the two came within a moderate distance of the cottage they
stopped, they looked about them from side to side, and it was plain to
see that they imagined they were on the wrong road.
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