"It's grand to ask me to it."

"Ach, we don't mind you. You're just like one of the family, abody

might say. We won't fix like for company, eat in the room or anything

like that."

"Well, I hope not. I'm no company. Let's eat in the kitchen and have

everything just as you do when the family's alone."

"Yes," agreed Mrs. Landis. "That will be more homelike."

Mary helped to set the table in the big kitchen.

"Shall I lay the spoons on the table-cloth like we did when Isabel was

here?" she asked her mother.

"Better put them in the spoon-holder," Amanda told her. "I'm no

company."

"I'm glad you ain't. I don't like tony company like that girl was. She

put on too much when she talked. And she had the funniest cheeks! Once

she wiped her face when it was hot and pink came off on her

handkerchief."

Amanda laughed and kept smiling as she helped the child set the table

for supper. Later she offered her services to Mrs. Landis. Martin,

coming in from the dusty road, found her before the stove, one of his

mother's gingham aprons tied around her waist, and turning sweet

potatoes in a big iron pan.

"Why, hello!" he said, pleasure written in his face. "Katie ran to meet

me and said I couldn't guess who was here for supper. Has Mother got

you working? Um," he sniffed, "smells awful much like chicken!"

"Ach," his mother told him, "you just hold your nose shut a while! You

and your pop can smell chicken off a mile. But you dare ring the supper

bell, Martin, before you go up-stairs to wash, so your pop and the boys

can come in now and get ready, too."

Soon the savory, smoking dishes were all placed on the big table in the

kitchen and the family with their guest gathered for the meal.

"Ain't I dare keep my coat off, Mom?" asked Mr. Landis, his face

flushed from a long hot day in the fields.

"Why, yes, if Amanda don't care."

"Why should I? Look at my cool dress! Take your coat off, Martin. I

never could see why men should roast while we keep comfortable."

As Martin stripped the serge coat off he thought of that other dinner

when coats were kept on and dinner eaten in "the room" because of the

presence of one who might take offense if she were expected to share

the plain, every-day ways of the family. What a fool he had been! Their

best efforts at style and convention must have looked very amateurish

and incomplete to her--what a fool he had been!

"Ah, that looks good!" Mr. Landis said after he had said grace and

everybody waited for the food to be passed. "Now we'll just hand the

platter around and let everybody help themselves, not so, Mom?"




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