“Well, I try to. It’s all I’ve got to give anyway;” Mrs. Finch replied, removing the cover from the boiler and poking at the clothes with a long clothes-stick; the steam rolled out the door and windows; as the room was cleared, Miss Affy discovered a high mahogany bureau with brass rings, the top of which was covered with books in neat piles.
“You are welcome to look at the books and take one. I wish you _would_ sit down, Miss Affy, I can talk while I work. I wish I might stay and wash the dishes for you.”
Miss Affy prayed every day, “Use me, Lord, any way, any where.”
“With that dress on?” said Mrs. Finch, regarding the new spring suit with favor. “I couldn’t help looking at you in church, if it _was_ Sunday, and thinking that you looked sweet enough to be a bride.”
“Thank you. I am fond of this dress,” replied Miss Affy in her simple, sweet way.
“When you are married, you must be married in gray. I was married in white. Thirty years ago.”
“I remember it,” said Miss Affy, “Cephas and I were there.”
“Don’t think about the dishes. It’s just like you.”
“I would more than think about them, but I must call on Nettie, and then I promised to read awhile to Mrs. Trembly; she is more blind than she was, and Agnes breaks her heart because she cannot find more time to read to her and amuse her.”
“They should come before dishes. People first, I say. That’s why I’m behind with my washing. People first, I say to Jonas, and he looks scornful. But it will pay some day.”
“A seed catalogue? We’ve never had a call for that. I thought everybody had one.”
“So we have, dozens. I meant a catalogue of the books. I would like to know what our boys and girls are reading.”
“Grown people, too. Everybody reads the books. Every time Mr. Gunn is laid up he is crazy for books. Look them over; lots of them are out. No matter how you put them back, if you only pile them up.”
“But you have a book in which to put down my name and the number of the book I take.”
“Oh, no; take any you like. I couldn’t be bothered that way. We expect new books. The last entertainment the school children had was to raise money for books. We don’t get anything for keeping the books, but Jonas is the greatest reader that ever was; he has read them all. But I never have time. I don’t know what is in any of them.”