Nan left her mother to explain matters further and sought the twins who were amicably swinging under a big tree. As she unfolded her news to them the point which at first seemed to be most important was the coming of the two boys. Jack objected to their arrival, Jean welcomed it, and straightway they began a discussion in the midst of which Nan left them. Her brain was buzzing with the many thoughts which her interview with her mother suggested. She determined to be zealous in good works, and immediately hunted up Mitty that she might see that all was going well in the kitchen.
Mitty had not much respect for one younger than herself and paid no attention when Nan entered, but kept on singing in a high shrill key:
"Whe-e-en Eve eat de apple, Whe-e-e-en Eve eat de apple, Whe-en Eve eat de apple, Lord, what a try-y-in' time."
"Mitty, have you everything out for supper?" asked Nan with her mother's manner.
Mitty rolled her eyes in Nan's direction, but vouchsafed no reply, continuing to sing in a little higher key:
"When she-e gabe de co' to Adam, Whe-en she gabe de co' to Adam, Whe-e-en she gabe de co' to Adam, Lord, what a try-y-yin' time."
"I want to know," repeated Nan severely, "if you have everything out for supper?"
"I has what I has," returned Mitty, breaking some splinters of wood across her knee.
"I wish you'd answer me properly," said Nan, impatiently.
"Yuh ain' de lady ob de house," returned Mitty, provokingly. "Yuh ain' but jest a little peepin' chick. Yuh ain' even fryin' size yet."
"I think when mother sends me with a message, it is your place to answer me," said Nan with her head in the air. "I will see if Unc' Landy can get you to tell me what mother wants to know." And she stalked out.
As Unc' Landy was Mitty's grandfather, and the only being of whom she stood in awe, this had its effect. "I tell yuh, Miss Nan, 'deed an' 'deed I will," cried Mitty, running after her and hastily enumerating the necessary articles to be given out from the pantry. "'Tain' no buttah, 'tain' no sugah, jest a little bit o' co'n meal. Oh, Miss Nan!"
But Nan had passed beyond hearing and was resolutely turning her steps toward Unc' Landy's quarters, a comfortable brick cabin which stood about fifty yards from the house. The old man was sitting before its door industriously mending a hoe-handle. It was not often that Nan complained of Mitty, for she, too, well knew the effect of such a course. Upon this occasion, however, she felt that her future authority depended upon establishing present relations and that it would never do to let Mitty know she had worsted the eldest daughter of the house. "Unc' Landy, I wish you'd speak to Mitty," said Nan. "She wouldn't tell me what to give out for supper and mother gave me the keys to attend to it for her; she's busy sewing."