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The shoulders came to her elbows nearly, and the cuffs beyond her finger-tips, while the collars refused to come anywhere near her neck! It was most disappointing. "She is very narrow, and thin for her height," remarked the girl, apologetically, as one after the other the coats hung off Huldah's shoulders like loose sacks. "I wonder if you wouldn't find a cloak more satisfactory for her.
Then what happened was that poor Mother Huldah dozed off to sleep and when she awoke there was Tommie staring into the fire, his green eyes like two lanterns and his whiskers standing out very stiff and knowing, and at Mother Huldah's' feet was a wicker basket from which issued a most appetizing odor.
Oft was a heavy yoke put on the burden of his childish shoulders. For this pitieth he the poor." "Locusts for the belly; patches for the back; a yoke for the shoulders! Shame on Israel that of this sort it would call a king even from Galilee where women labor in the field and men like cattle toil!" and Huldah's lip curled with scorn. "The toiler toileth that Herod may make great banquets.
Miss Rose read Huldah's eager face, and almost nervously enquired the price. It would be such a blow if it should be beyond them. "It is reduced to eight shillings, madam," said the girl, who was almost as anxious to sell as they were to buy. "It is good cloth, a real bargain." "Then we must have it, mustn't we, brownie?" cried Miss Rose, promptly.
For a month the two sat opposite to each other and partook of Huldah's excellent cooking; then one day the woman found at her plate a piece of brown paper on which had been scrawled: If I ain't worth speakin' to I ain't worth cookin' for. Hereafter I'll take care of myself. A day later came the retort. Cyrus found it tucked under the shed- chamber door. Huldah's note showed her "schooling."
He gave a little whine, and Huldah looked up at him. "Oh, Dick, what can I do? Mrs. Perry will be so frightened there alone, and she'll be troubling about us so, and and there's Miss Rose too" more tears trickled down Huldah's cheeks, "yet I can't go and leave Aunt Emma all alone now, with the van and Charlie to look after, and Uncle Tom in jail. Oh, what can I do? what can I do!"
"I don't just now think of any particular story of New England Thanksgivings that would interest you," said the judge. "Tell them about Huldah's mince pie," said Mrs. Balcom, as she looked up from a copy of Whittier she had been reading.
"Who's Dick?" hastily pushing the door close, in her alarm. "Dick's my dog. He he followed me. He's starving, too," and a sob broke from Huldah's throat. "We wouldn't hurt you, ma'am, for anything; we couldn't, we're dead-beat. I haven't had anything to eat since yesterday, and we've come miles and miles.
Huldah's face grew brighter and brighter with every word Miss Rose uttered, for she had begun to fear that they would have to go elsewhere. To be near Miss Rose, too, would help to make up for the pain of leaving Aunt Martha and Dick and the cottage, a parting which had been weighing on her more heavily than she would have liked anyone to know. Dick, it was decided, was to remain with Mrs.
"I feel almost too happy," she was saying to herself, as she stepped out into the street, where the setting sun was flooding the place with radiance, a dazzling, rosy radiance that shone right in Huldah's eyes, and blinded her to all about her.
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