The last girl left here because she could n't stand the cats ; they affected her nerves , she said . I hope you do n't mind them . '' `` Oh , no ; I kind of like cats . I 've been tryin ' to count them . Has anyone ever done that ? '' `` Not that I know of . I tried but I had to give up in despair -- never could tell when I was counting the same cat over again . Look at that black goblin sunning himself on the woodpile . I say , Nelly , you 're not going , are you ? '' `` I must . It 's time to get dinner . Mr. Pennington will be in from the fields soon . '' The next minute he heard her stepping briskly about the kitchen , shooing out intruding cats , and humming a darky air to herself . He went reluctantly back to the shore and rowed across the river in a brown study . I do n't know whether Winslow was afflicted with chronic thirst or not , or whether the East side water was n't so good as that of the West side ; but I do know that he fairly haunted the Pennington farmhouse after that . Mrs. Pennington was home the next time he went , and he asked her about her new girl . To his surprise the good lady was unusually reticent . She could n't really say very much about Nelly . No , she did n't belong anywhere near Riverside . In fact , she -- Mrs. Pennington -- did n't think she had any settled home at present .
Her father was travelling XXXXX the country somewhere .
In To about across after as at near over that