parlor don't burn more than a half cord of wood on a Sunday, and you can
come over Saturday afternoon and cut it against the Sabbath, with a welcome
to any one of the spare rooms and a slab of Rufus's spare rib and a couple
of both breakfast and supper muffins." All of the older men laughed at this
sweeping invitation, and all the younger greeted it with ears that became
instantly crimson. I verily believe they would one and all have fled and
left me sitting there yet if a diversion had not arrived in the person of
Mrs. Silas, who came bustling out of the door of the grocery or post-office
or bank; whichever it is called, is according to your errand there. Mrs. Si
was tall, and almost as broad as the door itself, with the rosiest cheeks
and the bluest eyes I had ever beheld, and they crinkled with loveliness
around their corners. She had white water-waves that escaped their decorous
plastering into waving little tendril curls, and her mouth was as curled
and red-lipped and dimpled as a girl's. In a twinkling of those blue eyes I
fell out of the carriage into a pair of strong, soft, tender arms covered
with stiff gray percale, and received two hearty kisses, one on each cheek.

"God bless you, honeybunch, and I'm glad William has brought you home at
last, the rascal." As she hugged me she reached out a strong hand and gave
father first a good shake by his shoulder and then by his hand.

"Fine girl, eh, Mary?" answered father as he returned the shoulder shake
with a pat on the broad gray percale back, and retained the strong hand in
his, with a frank clinging.

I wondered if--

"She's her Aunt Mary's blessed child, and I will have her making riz
biscuits like old Madam Craddock's black Sue for you two boys in less than
a week," she answered him, with a laugh that somehow sounded a bit dewy.