In the morning, the girls returned for a last look, and for the remaining curtains. Dandelion cottage, stripped of its furniture and without its pictures, showed its age and all its infirmities. Great patches of plaster and wall-paper were missing, for the gay posters had covered a multitude of defects. The indignant Tucker boys had disobeyed Bettie and had removed not only the tin they had put on the leaking roof, but the steps they had built at the back door, the drain they had found it necessary to place under the kitchen sink, and the bricks with which they had propped the tottering chimneys.
Before the day was over, the tenants whom the Milligans had found for their own house were clamouring to move in, so the Milligans took possession of the cottage late that afternoon, getting the key from Mr. Powning, into whose keeping the girls had silently delivered it that morning. To do Mr. Downing justice, nothing had previous-
