"It looks as if it had been scoured," she said.
"Um-hm," observed her uncle, with a gratified nod; "that's Abbie. She
hates dirt worse than she does laziness, and that ain't sayin' a little.
I tell her she'd sand-soap the weather vane if she could climb up to
it; as 'tis, she stays below and superintends Dan while he does it. If
godliness wants to stay next to cleanliness when she's around it has
to keep on the jump. I always buy shirts two degrees heavier'n I need,
'cause I know she'll have 'em scrubbed thin in a fortni't. When it comes
to REAL Domestic Science, Caroline, Abbie ain't in the back row of the
primer class, now I tell you."
Miss Baker had planned that her young guest should sit in state, with
folded hands, in the parlor. She seemed to consider that the proper
conduct for a former member of New York's best society. She was shocked
when the girl volunteered to help her about the house.
"Course I sha'n't let you," she said. "The idea--and you company! Got
more help than I know what to do with, as 'tis. 'Lisha was determined
that I should hire a girl to wash dishes and things while you was here.
Nothin' would do but that. So I got Annabel Haven's daughter, Etta G.
There's fourteen in that family, and the land knows 'twas an act of
charity takin' one appetite out of the house.
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