"No--no--we wouldn't have you different. Many of the best men would be mere brutes if women's pity and tenderness and forgiveness were taken out of their lives--we wouldn't have you different." CHAPTER XXII ON THE MOUNTAIN TOP The following Sunday at noon Martin passed the Reist farmhouse as he drove his mother and several of the children to Mennonite church at Landisville. After the service he passed that way again and noticed several cars stopping at Reists'. Evidently they were entertaining a number of visitors for Sunday dinner after the service, as is the custom in rural Lancaster County. The big porch was filled with people who rocked or leaned idly against the pillars, while in the big kitchen Millie, Amanda and Mrs. Reist worked near the hot stove and prepared an appetizing dinner for them. Amanda did not shirk her portion of the necessary work, but rebellion was in her heart as she noted her mother's flushed, tired face. "Mother, if you'd only feel that Millie and I could get the dinner without you! It's a shame to have you in this kitchen on a day like this!" "Ach, I'm not so hot. I'm not better than you or Millie," the mother insisted, and stuck to her post, while Amanda murmured, "This Sunday visiting--how I hate it! We've outgrown the need of it now, especially with automobiles." But at length the meal was placed upon the table, the guests gathered from porches and lawn and an hour later the dishes were washed and everything at peace once more in the kitchen. Then Amanda walked out to the garden at the rear of the house. "Ooh," she sighed in relief, "I'm glad that's over! Visiting on such a day should be made a misdemeanor!" She pulled idly on a zinnia that lifted its globular red head in the hot August sun. "Hey, Sis," came Phil's voice to her, "he wants you on the 'phone!" "Who's he?" she asked as the boy ran out to her in the garden. They turned to the house, talking as they went. "Well, Sis, you know who _he_ is! He's coming round here all the time lately." A gentle shove from the girl rewarded the boy for his teasing, but he was not easily daunted. "Don't you remember," he said, "how that old Mrs. Haldeman who kept tine candy store near the market house in Lancaster used to call her husband _he_? She never called him Mister or Mr. Haldeman, just _he_, and you could feel she would have written it in italics if she could."