"Oh, don't mind me," said the professor with a twinkle. "Go as far as you like. If the ladies have such open minds that he who runs may read, and they think disagreeable things about my wife, why, they deserve to be used for house cleaning purposes, have the floor wiped up with them and what not."
The luncheon broke up in a laugh and evidently there were no hard feelings on the part of the host for the criticism of Miss Fern that had so ingenuously fallen from the lips of the irrepressible Billie.
"Billie! What a break!" screamed Jo, when they got outside after Molly had given them all an extra hug for the undying proof of friendship they had given her.
"Break, indeed! I never forgot for an instant that Epi Anti was a near cousin to that maidenhair fern. I just thought I'd let him know how she had acted and how uncomfortable she had made our Molly feel. I knew Molly would never let him know, and I could do it and make out it was a break."
"Well, if you aren't like Bret Harte's heathen Chinee, I never saw one," laughed Thelma.
"'Which I wish to remark, And my language is plain, That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar.'"
"All the same, I bet old Epi Anti doesn't tell Molly any more what a sweet thing Alice Fern is."
"Insight into human nature," and Billie made a saucy moue.
"Gee, my back aches!" said Jo. "I think I'll do housework often. It certainly does reach muscles we don't know about. But didn't it pay just to see dear old Molly's face when we rolled out from behind the sofa?"
"Edwin," said Molly, after the girls had gone, "I think I'll send for Kizzie to come help me. I may put her in the kitchen and take Katy for a nurse."
"Good! I am certainly glad you have come to that decision. What changed you?"
"Well, it seems to me that when it comes to the pass that my college girls feel so sorry for me they cut such lectures as yours to give the whole morning to cleaning up for me I must do something, and the only thing I can think of doing is to send for Kizzie."
"Can you mix the black and white without coming to grief?"
"Remember, Katy is more green than white, and she is so good-natured, she could get along with anything."
"I can't tell you how relieved I am, honey. I wanted you to do what pleased you, but I could not see how I was coming in on this. I felt very lonesome, and while I wasn't jealous of the baby, I was certainly envious of her. If Kizzie comes, you can be with me more and nurse me some."