New England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Women -- New England -- Fiction
"Oh, don't let's forgit to watch for her," exclaimed Mrs. Flagg,
beginning to brush off the dust of travel. "There, I feel an excellent
appetite, don't you? And we ain't got more 'n three or four miles to
go, if we have that. I wonder what Mis' Timms is likely to give us for
dinner; she spoke of makin' a good many chicken-pies, an' I happened
to remark how partial I was to 'em. She felt above most of the things
we had provided for us over to the conference. I know she was always
counted the best o' cooks when I knew her so well to Longport. Now,
don't you forget, if there's a suitable opportunity, to inquire about
the drop-cakes;" and Miss Pickett, a little less doubtful than before,
renewed her promise.
IV.
"My gracious, won't Mis' Timms be pleased to see us! It 's just
exactly the day to have company. And ain't Baxter a sweet pretty
place?" said Mrs. Flagg, as they walked up the main street. "Cynthy
Pickett, now ain't you proper glad you come? I felt sort o' calm about
it part o' the time yesterday, but I ain't felt so like a girl for a
good while. I do believe I'm goin' to have a splendid time."
Miss Pickett glowed with equal pleasure as she paced along. She was
less expansive and enthusiastic than her companion, but now that they
were fairly in Baxter, she lent herself generously to the occasion.
The social distinction of going away to spend a day in company with
Mrs. Flagg was by no means small. She arranged the folds of her shawl
more carefully over her arm so as to show the pretty palm-leaf border,
and then looked up with great approval to the row of great maples that
shaded the broad sidewalk. "I wonder if we can't contrive to make time
to go an' see old Miss Nancy Fell?" she ventured to ask Mrs. Flagg.
"There ain't a great deal o' time before the stage goes at four
o'clock; 't will pass quickly, but I should hate to have her feel
hurt. If she was one we had visited often at home, I shouldn't care so
much, but such folks feel any little slight. She was a member of our
church; I think a good deal of that."
"Well, I hardly know what to say," faltered Mrs. Flagg coldly. "We
might just look in a minute; I shouldn't want her to feel hurt."
"She was one that always did her part, too," said Miss Pickett, more
boldly. "Mr. Cronin used to say that she was more generous with her
little than many was with their much. If she hadn't lived in a poor
part of the town, and so been occupied with a different kind of people
from us, 't would have made a difference. They say she's got a
comfortable little home over here, an' keeps house for a nephew. You
know she was to our meeting one Sunday last winter, and 'peared
dreadful glad to get back; folks seemed glad to see her, too. I don't
know as you were out."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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