`` Did they turn yez out ? '' `` We 've been over to Baywater , and we got lost in the storm coming back , '' explained Dan . `` We did n'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 do n't mind . '' `` And if it wo n'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 . Yet here we were ; and the witch herself was actually brewing a jorum of ginger tea for Cecily , who continued to shiver long after the rest of us were roasted to the marrow . Poor Sis drank that scalding draught , being in too great awe of Peg to do aught else . `` That 'll soon fix your shivers , '' said our hostess kindly . `` And now I 'll get yez all some tea . '' `` Oh , please do n't trouble , '' said the Story Girl hastily . ''
` Tai n't any trouble , '' said Peg briskly ; then , with one of the sudden changes to fierceness which made her such a terrifying personage , `` Do XXXXX think my vittels ai n't clean ? ''
Baywater Cecily Peg Sis hearth-stone het rungs shivers storm yez