TO EAT WITH THE FAMILY
As the two girls entered the house, Miriam clapped her hands.
"What a surprise this will be for Ralph!" she exclaimed. "He hasn't the
slightest idea that you are here, or that anybody is going to spend the
night with us. If Mike said anything about you and your brother,--which I
doubt, for he is awfully anxious to get in that hay,--Ralph thought, of
course, that you were both gone long ago."
The situation suited Dora's fancy admirably.
"Let us make it a regular surprise," she said. "I am going to help you to
get supper, and to do whatever you have to do. Suppose you don't tell
your brother that I am here, and let him find it out by degrees. Don't
you think that will be fun?"
"Indeed it will," cried the other; "and if you don't mind helping a
little about the cooking, I think that will be fun too. Perhaps you can
tell me some things I don't know."
"Let us begin," exclaimed Dora, "for everything ought to be ready before
he comes in. Can you lend me a big apron?"
"I have only one," said Miriam, "and it is not very big; I intended to
make some more, but I haven't had time. But you needn't do anything, you
know. You can just give me advice and keep me company."
"Oh, I want to do things. I want to work," cried Dora; "it would be cruel
to keep me from the fun of helping you get supper. Haven't you something
I can slip on instead of this dress? It is not very fine, but I don't
want to spatter or burn it."
"None of my clothes are long enough for you," said Miriam; "but perhaps I
might find something in the garret. There are all sorts of clothes up
there. If you choose, we can go up and look."
In the next minute the two girls were in the great garret, kneeling in
front of a trunk, in which Miriam had found the silk robe, which now lay
tumbled up in a corner of a stall in the cow-stable. Article after
article of female attire was drawn out and tossed on the floor. Dora was
delighted; she was fond of old-fashioned things, and here were clothes of
various eras. Some colonial, perhaps, and none that had been worn since
these two girls had come into the world. There was a calico dress with
large pink figures in it which caught Dora's eye; she sprang to her feet,
shook it out, and held it up before her.
"This will do," she said. "The length is all right, and it does not
matter about the rest of the fit."
"Of course not," said Miriam; "and now let us go down. We need not wait
to put the rest of the things back."
As Dora was about to go, her eyes fell on an old-fashioned pink
sunbonnet.
"If you don't mind," she said, "I will take that, too. I shall be
awfully awkward, and I don't want to get cinders or flour in my hair."
When Dora had arrayed herself in the calico dress with pink flowers, she
stood for a moment before the large mirror in Miriam's room. The dress
was very short as to waist, and very perpendicular as to skirt, and the
sleeves were puffy at the elbows and tight about the wrists, but pink was
a color that became her, the quaint cut of the gown was well suited to
her blooming face, and altogether she was pleased with the picture in the
glass. As for the sunbonnet, that was simply hideous, but it could be
taken off when she chose, and the wearing of it would help her very much
in making herself known to Mr. Ralph Haverley.
For half an hour the girls worked bravely in the kitchen. Dora had some
knowledge of the principles of cookery, though her practice had been
small, and Miriam possessed an undaunted courage in culinary enterprises.
However, they planned nothing difficult, and got on very well. Dora made
up some of Miriam's dough into little rolls.
"I wish I could make these as the Tolbridges' new cook makes them. They
say that every morning she sends in a plate of breakfast rolls, each one
a different shape, and some of them ever so pretty."
"I don't suppose they taste any better for that," remarked Miriam.
"Perhaps not," said the other, "but I like to see things to eat look
pretty." And she did her best to shape the little rolls into such
forms that they might please the eye of Mr. Ralph as well as satisfy
his palate.
Miriam went up to the dining-room to arrange the table. While doing this
she saw Ralph approaching from the barn. In the kitchen, below, Dora,
glancing out of the window, also saw him coming, and pulling her
sunbonnet well forward, she applied herself more earnestly to her work.
Ralph came in, tired and warm, and threw himself down on a long
horse-hair sofa in the hall.
"Heigh ho, Miriam," he cried; "hay-making is a jolly thing, all the world
over, but I have had enough of it for to-day. How are you getting on,
little one? Don't put yourself to too much trouble about my supper. Only
give me enough of whatever you have; that is all I ask."
"Ralph," said Miriam, standing gravely by him, "I did not have to get
supper all by myself; there is a new girl in the kitchen."
"Good," cried Ralph; "I am very glad to hear that. When did she come?"
"This afternoon," said Miriam, "and she is cooking supper now. But,
Ralph," she continued, "there is hardly any wood in the kitchen. We
have--she has used up nearly all that was brought in this morning."
"Well," said Ralph, "there is plenty of it cut, in the woodhouse."
"But, Ralph," said Miriam, "I don't like to ask her to go after the wood,
herself, and some is needed now."
"Mike is just as busy as he can be down at the barn," said her brother,
"and I cannot call him now. If you show her the woodhouse, she can get
what she wants with very little trouble, and Mike will bring in a lot of
it to-night."
"But, Ralph," persisted his sister, "I don't want to ask her to stop her
cooking and go out and get wood. It does not look like good management,
for one thing, and for other reasons I do not want to do it. Don't you
think you could bring her some wood? Just a little basketful of short
sticks will do."
Ralph sat up and knitted his brows. "Miriam," said he, "if your new cook
is the right sort of a woman, she ought to be able to help herself in
emergencies of this kind, with the woodhouse not a dozen yards from the
kitchen. But as she is a stranger to the place, and I don't want to
discourage anybody who comes to help you, I will get some wood for her,
but I must say that it does not look very well for the lord of the manor
to be carrying fuel to the cook."
"It isn't the lord of the manor," cried Miriam; "it is the head
hay-maker, and when you dress yourself for supper, she will never think
of you as the man who brought in the wood."
Dora, from the kitchen window, saw Ralph go out to the woodhouse, and she
saw him returning with an arm-load of small sticks. Then she turned her
back to the kitchen door, and bent her head over a beefsteak she was
preparing for the gridiron.
Ralph came in with the wood, and put it down by the side of the great
stove. As he glanced at the slight form in the pink gown, it struck him
that this woman would not be equal to the hard work which would be
sometimes necessary here.
"I suppose this wood will be as much as you will want for the present,"
he said, as he turned toward the door, "and the man will fill this box
to-night, but if you need any more before he does so, there is the
woodhouse just across the yard, where you can easily get a few sticks."
Dora half turned herself in the direction of the woodhouse, and murmured,
"Yes, sir."
"Miriam," said Ralph, as he went into the dining-room, where his sister
was putting the knives and forks upon the supper table, "do you think
that woman is strong enough to wash, iron, and do all the things that
Phoebe used to do when she was here? How old is she?"
"I don't know, exactly," answered Miriam, going to a cupboard for some
glasses; "and as to rough work, I can't tell what she can do, until
she tries."
When Ralph had made his toilet and come downstairs, attired in a very
becoming summer suit, his sister complimented him.
"Hay-making makes you ever so much handsomer," she said; "you look as if
you had been on a yachting cruise. There is one thing I forgot to say to
you, but I do not suppose it will make any difference, as we are real
country people now: our new cook is accustomed to eating at the table
with the family."
Ralph's face flushed. "Upon my word!" he exclaimed, staring at his
sister. "Well," he continued, "I don't care what she is accustomed to,
but she cannot eat at our table. I may carry wood for cooks, but I do
not eat with them."
"But, Ralph," said Miriam, "you ought to consider the circumstances. She
is not a common Irishwoman, or German. She is an American, and has always
taken her meals with the family in which she lived. I could not ask her
to eat in the kitchen. You know, Mike takes his meals there since Phoebe
has gone. Indeed, Ralph, I cannot expect her to do a thing that she has
never done in her life, before. Do you really think you would mind it?
You work with Mike in the field, and you don't mind that, and this girl
is very respectable, I assure you."
Ralph stood silent. He had supposed his sister, young as she was, knew
more of the world than to make an arrangement with a servant which would
put her, in many respects, on an equality with themselves. He was very
much annoyed, but he would not be angry with Miriam, if he could help it,
nor would he put her in the embarrassing position of revoking the
agreement with this American woman, probably a farmer's daughter, and, in
her own opinion, as good as anybody. But, although he might yield at
present, he determined to take the important matter of engaging domestic
servants into his own hands. His sister had not yet the necessary
judgment for that sort of thing.
"Miriam," said he, "for how long have you engaged this woman?"
"Nothing at all has been said about time," she answered.
"Very well, then," said he, "she can come to the table to-night and
to-morrow morning, for, I suppose, if I object, she will go off and leave
you again without anybody, but to-morrow she must be told that she cannot
eat with us; and if she does not like that, she must leave, and I will go
to the city and get you a proper servant. The hay is in now, and there is
no more important work to which I could give a day. Now do not be angry,
little one, because I object to your domestic arrangements. We all have
to make mistakes, you know, when we begin."
"Thank you, Ralph," said Miriam. "I really am ever so much obliged to
you," and going up to her brother, she lifted her face to his. Ralph
stooped to kiss her, but suddenly stopped.
"Who, in the name of common sense, is that!" he exclaimed. The sound of
wheels was plainly heard upon the driveway, and turning, they saw a buggy
stop at the door.
"It is Dr. Tolbridge!" cried Miriam.
Through the open front door Ralph saw that it was the doctor, preparing
to alight.
"Miriam," said he, quickly, "we must ask the doctor to stay to supper,
and if he does, that cook must not come to the table. It will not do at
all, as you can see for yourself. We cannot ask our friends and neighbors
to sit down with servants."
"I will see," said Miriam. "I think that can be made all right," and they
both went to the door to meet their visitor.
The doctor shook hands with them most cordially.
"Glad to see you both so ruddy; Cobhurst air must agree with you. And
now, before we say anything else, let me ask you a question: Have you had
your supper?"
"No," answered Ralph, "and I hope you have not."
"Your hopes are realized. I have not, and if you do not mind letting me
sup with you, I will do it."
The brother and sister, who both liked the hearty doctor, assured him
that they would be delighted to have him stay.
"The reason of my extending an invitation to myself is this: I have been
making a visit in the country, where I was detained much longer than I
expected, and as I drove homeward, I said to myself, 'Good sir, you are
hungry, and where are you going to get your evening meal? You cannot
reach home until long after the dinner hour, and moreover you have a
patient beyond Cobhurst, whom you ought to see this evening. It would be
a great pity to drive all the way to Thorbury, and then back again,
to-night. Now there are those young Cobhurst people, who, you know, have
supper at the end of the day, instead of dinner, like the regular farmers
that they are, and as you want to see them, anyway, and find out how they
are getting on, it will be well to stop there, and ten to one, you will
find that they have not yet sat down to the table.'"
"A most excellent conclusion," said Ralph, "and I will call Mike, and
have him take your horse."
Having left the doctor in the charge of her brother, Miriam hurried
downstairs to apprise Dora of the state of affairs.
"I am sorry," she said, "but we will have to give up the trick we were
going to play on Ralph, for Dr. Tolbridge has come, and will stay to
supper, and so, while you go upstairs and put on your own dress, I will
finish getting these things ready. I will see Ralph before we sit down,
and tell him all about it."
Dora made no movement toward the stairs.
"I knew it was the doctor," she said, "for I went out and looked around
the corner of the house, and saw his horse. But I do not see why we
should give up our trick. Let us play it on the doctor as well as on
your brother."
Miriam stood silent a few moments.
"I do not know how that would do," she said. "That is a very different
thing. And besides, I do not believe Ralph would let you come to the
table. You ought to have seen how angry he was when I told him the new
cook must eat with us."
"Oh, that was splendid!" cried Dora. "I will not come to the table. That
will make it all the funnier when we tell him. I can eat my supper
anywhere, and I will go upstairs and wait on you, which will be better
sport than sitting down at the table with you."
"But I do not like that," said Miriam. "I will not have you go without
your supper until we have finished."
"My dear Miriam!" exclaimed Dora, "what is a supper in comparison with
such a jolly bit of fun as this? Let me go on as the new cook. And now
we must hurry and get these things on the table. It will make things a
great deal easier for me, if they can eat before it is time to light
the lamps."
When Miriam went to call the gentlemen to supper, the doctor said to
her:--
"Your brother has told me that you have a new servant, and that she is so
preposterous as to wish to take her meals with you, but that he does not
intend to allow it. Now, I say to you, as I said to him, that if she
expected to sit at the table before I came, she must do it now. I am used
to that sort of thing, and do not mind it a bit. In the families of the
farmers about here, with whom I often take a meal, it is the custom for
the daughter of the family to cook, to wait on the table, and then sit
down with whomever may be there, kings or cobblers. I beg that you will
not let my coming make trouble in your household."
Miriam looked at her brother.
"All right," said Ralph, with a smile, "if the doctor does not mind, I
shall not. And now, do let us have something to eat."