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"I was over't Warren's t' other day," she said, biting off a thread, "and Becky had jist come home from Phildelphy. There's new-fashioned bonnets comin' up, she says. She stayed with Allen's, but who they are I don't know. Laws! now I think on it, Mary, you stayed at Allen's, too, when you were there!" "No," said Mary Potter, "it was at Treadwell's." "Treadwell's? I thought you told me Allen's.
"I used to could hardly wait still, and I'd be glad this time if we didn't have that teacher from Phildelphy. Miss Virginia Lee her name is, and she's pretty like the name, but I don't like her! Guess she's that stuck up, comin' from the city, that she'll laugh all the time at us country people. I don't like people that poke fun at me, you bet I don't!
"Now be sure, Phœbe," said Aunt Maria for the tenth time, "to ask the conductor at Reading if that train is for Phildelphy before you get on, and at Phildelphy you wait till Miss Lee fetches you." "Yes, Aunt Maria, I'll be careful." "And don't lose your trunk check David, did you give it to her for sure?" "Yes. She'll hold on to it, don't you worry." "Phœbe will be all right," said Mother Bab.
There, in that green spot, Miss Lee tactfully coaxed the child to unfold her charming personality, all serenely unconscious of the fact that inside the gray house the white-capped women were discussing the new teacher as they prepared the dinner. "She seems vonderful nice and common," volunteered Aunt Maria. "Not stuck up, for a Phildelphy lady." "Well, why should she be stuck up?" argued one.
"I can fancy all that, my boy," she gently answered, "and I'll tell you another thing, Gilbert your mother has a heavy secret on her mind, and I rather guess it concerns your father. No don't look so eager-like I don't know it. All I do know is that you were born in Phildelphy." "In Philadelphia! I never heard that." "Well it's neither here nor there.
Why, old Liz Williams, o' Birmingham, herself told me with her own mouth, how she was ridin' home from Phildelphy market last winter, with six dollars, the price of her turkeys and General Washin'ton's cook took one of 'em, but that's neither here nor there in her pocket, and fearful as death when she come to Concord woods, and lo and behold! there she was overtook by a fresh-complected man, and she begged him to ride with her, for she had six dollars in her pocket and Sandy was known to be about.
But I guess it's different from Phildelphy. I was there once, in the Centennial, and it was so full everywheres. I like the country best. Can't anything beat this now, can it?" They reached the summit of the hill and paused. "No," said Miss Lee, "this is hard to beat. I love the view from this hill." "Ain't now" Aunt Maria smiled in approval "this here is about the nicest spot around Greenwald.
"Why, Phares," she called, "you goin' to Greenwald?" "Yes. Anything I can do for you?" "Ach no. Phœbe was in the other day. But come in once, Phares, I'll tell you something about her." "Where is Phœbe?" he asked as he joined Aunt Maria in the garden. "Over at the quarry again. But I must tell you, she's goin' to Phildelphy to study singin'. She asked her pop and he said she dare."
I never saw you sitting down early on a Friday afternoon." Aunt Maria laughed. "I ain't sick! You can see what I'm doin'; I'm knittin'. Ain't you learned to do it yet? I can learn you." "Why, I know how. But what are you knitting? For the Red Cross?" "Why not? You think the ladies in Phildelphy are the only ones do that? There's a Red Cross in Greenwald and they are askin' all who can to help.
I borrowed the loan o' his bay horse and put off for Phildelphy the very next day, and a mortal job it was; what with bar'ls and boxes pitched hither and yon, and people laughin' at y'r odd looks, don't talk o' Phildelphy manners to me, for I've had enough of 'em! and old Treadwell dead when I did find him, and the daughter married to Greenfield in the brass and tin-ware business, it's a mercy I ever found out anything."
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