land knows what it'll be with only an hour ter git it in," she muttered
between short, puffing breaths, for Mrs. Hodgkins was stout, and she had
already taken a long walk.

The dinner was indeed an odd one, made up from what were termed by Mrs.
Hodgkins "odds and ends," but Joel Hodgkins was a patient man, and his
appetite was one which never needed tempting, so he partook of the viands
which his wife offered him with an apparent relish, and was soon at work
again in the field.

Then Mrs. Hodgkins donned a fresh apron preparatory to going out,
remarking as she tied her sunbonnet strings with a twitch,

"I reely must go over to Almiry's, it's only a step er two, and what's the
use of havin' a niece in the neighborhood ef not ter tell news ter, an'
what's the use er hearin' news an' keepin' it ter yourself?

"I'll git home in time ter bake a batch er gingerbread fer tea," she
continued, "Joel's paowerful fond er gingerbread an' it'll sort er pay
him fer eatin' such a dinner with such endurin' patience."

Almira Meeks lay back in the big old fashioned rocker, too tired, she
declared, to care "whether school kept or not."

Meek in name and in nature, there was not a day that she did not overwork,
and when the forenoon's tasks were completed, she would lie back exhausted
in the big old chair, only to be reprimanded if her husband chanced to
come in, for "havin' so little energy." It was with delight that she
welcomed Aunt Sophrony, saying: