"To think, Mrs. Meyerburg, all my children gone out for a good time this afternoon, my Tillie with Morris Rinabauer, who can't keep his eyes off her--" "How polished she keeps her stove, just like I used to." "Right when you knocked I was thinking, well, I clean up a bit. Please, Mrs. Meyerburg, let me fix you right away a cup coffee--" "Right away, Mrs. Fischlowitz, just so soon you begin to make fuss over me, I don't enjoy it no more. Please, Mrs. Fischlowitz, right here in this old rocker-chair by the range let me, please, sit quiet a minute." In the wooden rocker beside the warm stove she sat down quietly, lapping her hands over her waist-line. _"Gott in Himmel,"_ sitting well away from the chair-back and letting her eyes travel slowly about the room, "just like it was yesterday; just like yesterday." And fell to reciting the phrase softly. "Ja, ja," said Mrs. Fischlowitz, concealing an unwashed litter of dishes beneath a hastily flung cloth. "I can tell you, Mrs. Meyerburg, my house ain't always this dirty; only to-day not--" "Just like it was yesterday," said Mrs. Meyerburg, musing through a tangle of memories. She fell to rocking. A narrow band of sunshine lay across the bare floor, even glinted off a pan or two hung along the wall over the sink. Along that same wall hung a festoon of red and green peppers and a necklace of garlic. Toward the back of the range a pan of hot water let off a lazy vapor. Beside the scuttle a cat purred and fought off sleep. "Already I got the hot water, Mrs. Meyerburg, to make you a cup coffee if--" "Please, Mrs. Fischlowitz, let me rest like this. In a minute I want you should take me all through in the children's room and--" "If I had only known it how I could have cleaned for you." "Ach, my noodle-board over there! How grand and white you keep it." "Ja, I--" "Mrs. Fischlowitz!" "Yes, Mrs. Meyerburg?" "Mrs. Fischlowitz, if you want to--to give me a real treat I tell you what. I tell you what!" "Ja, ja, Mrs. Meyerburg; anything what I can do I--" "I want you should let me mix you on that old board a mess noodles!" "Ach, Mrs. Meyerburg, your hands and that grand black-silk dress!" "For why not, Mrs. Fischlowitz? Wide ones, like he used to like. Just for fun, please, Mrs. Fischlowitz. To-morrow I send you two barrels flour for what I use up." "But, Mrs. Meyerburg, I should make for you noodles, not you for me--" "It's good I should learn, Mrs. Fischlowitz, to get back my hand in such things. Maybe you don't believe me, but I ain't so rich like I was yesterday when you seen me, Mrs. Fischlowitz. To-day I'm a poor woman, Mrs. Fischlowitz, with--" Mrs. Fischlowitz threw out two hands in a liberal gesture. "Such a good woman she is! In my house where I'm poor she wants, too, to play like she's a poor woman. That any one should want to play such a game with themselves! Noodles she wants to make for me, instead I should wait on her like she was a queen."