“Marta, directly your noodles are made, go to Mrs. Framley’s and ask her to please telephone to the fishmonger for a quarter of a hundred oysters in the deep shell, to be sent here for one o’clock. Be as quick as you can, and when you come back you will find on the dining-room table full written instructions for what you are to do.” Molly went to the parlor and found Mr. Bishop reading his paper. “Go on reading for a minute, please; I will write a line. I know if you have not got through the morning news you will be glad to do it.” “I just glanced at the money market at breakfast, and I’ve too much respect for my eyes to read in the cars.” Molly went to the davenport and wrote Marta’s instructions. Her first impulse had been to use her materials for dinner, to have the frozen bananas for dessert; but on second thought she resolved to give just what she meant to have for her own lunch, with oysters to make enough; the bread was fresh and very good; therefore she wrote the following:— “Make the cold bean soup boiling hot, boil one egg hard and cut it in quarters lengthwise, then across; lay it in the soup-tureen and pour the soup on it. Cut four thin slices of lemon and drop them in as it comes to table. When the oysters come, set them, in their shells, in a dripping-pan; put on each a bit of butter, size of a hazel-nut; pepper them and set them over the fire till the liquor in the shells bubbles; watch till the butter melts, then they are done; take them off the fire immediately. Use a cloth to put them on a hot dish; take care you do not spill the gravy. Serve with hot plates. “Cut the cold pudding in finger-lengths, make a batter of two table-spoonfuls of flour, a pinch of salt, and milk to make it as thick as thick cream; dip each piece into the batter, and fry in deep fat till brown; sift sugar over it, and serve with hard sauce.” As Molly wrote the last words she heard Mrs. Bishop coming down-stairs, and wondered much what she could do to entertain her. She had actually never been with her without Harry before, but the matter solved itself, for the elder lady questioned her as to her mode of life, what she did with her time, how Harry and she spent the evenings, and when told as simply as Molly knew how, she laughed, with a sort of good-natured sarcasm. “Quite idyllic, I declare; so Harry reads aloud while you sew,—or else you both play chess.” “Yes; of course we are almost strangers in Greenfield. When we are better known no doubt we may go out more, but all our neighbors are very pleasant.” “Now that is one thing I wanted to caution you about; one of the penalties of living in a place like this is that you must know every one, and are apt to make intimates that you can not shake off easily when you go away.” “But,” said Molly, with some dignity, “I shall make no intimacies I should ever want to shake off; people good enough to be my friends now will be good enough at all times.”