Elsie, dreadfully ashamed, made a bolt from the room, and hid herself in
the hall closet to have her laugh out. She came back after a while, with
a perfectly straight face. Luncheon was brought up. Mrs. Worrett made a
good meal, and seemed to enjoy everything. She was so comfortable that
she never stirred till four o'clock! Oh, how long that afternoon did
seem to the poor girls, sitting there and trying to think of something
to say to their vast visitor!

At last Mrs. Worrett got out of her chair, and prepared to depart.

"Well," she said, tying her bonnet-strings, "I've had a good rest, and
feel all the better for it. Ain't some of you young folks coming out to
see me one of these days? I'd like to have you, first-rate, if you will.
'Tain't every girl would know how to take care of a fat old woman, and
make her feel to home, as you have me, Katy. I wish your aunt could see
you all as you are now. She'd be right pleased; I know that."

Somehow, this sentence rang pleasantly in Katy's ears.

"Ah! don't laugh at her," she said later in the evening, when the
children, after their tea in the clean, fresh-smelling dining-room, were
come up to sit with her, and Cecy, in her pretty pink lawn and white
shawl, had dropped in to spend an hour or two; "she's a real kind old
woman, and I don't like to have you. It isn't her fault that she's fat.
And Aunt Izzie was fond of her, you know. It is doing something for her
when we can show a little attention to one of her friends. I was sorry
when she came, but now it's over, I'm glad."

"It feels so nice when it stops aching," quoted Elsie, mischievously,
while Cecy whispered to Clover.