"Behind her was a dim room scantly illumined by the one small
candle that had guided us through the storm; but the old Waterloo
stove was colouring the gloom with tremulous, rose-red whorls of
light, and warm and cosy indeed seemed Peg's retreat to us snow-
covered, frost-chilled, benighted wanderers.
"Gracious goodness, where did yez all come from?" exclaimed Peg.
"Did they turn yez out?"
"We've been over to Baywater, and we got lost in the storm coming
back," explained Dan. "We didn't know where we were till we saw
your light. I guess we'll have to stay here till the storm is
over--if you don't mind."
"And if it won't inconvenience you," said Cecily timidly.
"Oh, it's no inconvenience to speak of. Come in. Well, yez HAVE
got some snow on yez. Let me get a broom. You boys stomp your
feet well and shake your coats. You girls give me your things and
I'll hang them up. Guess yez are most froze. Well, sit up to the
stove and git het up."
Peg bustled away to gather up a dubious assortment of chairs, with
backs and rungs missing, and in a few minutes we were in a circle
around her roaring stove, getting dried and thawed out. In our
wildest flights of fancy we had never pictured ourselves as guests
at the witch's hearth-stone.
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