"For wha' we're 'bout to r'ceive make us tru' grat'ful--pass the butter, Sairy," and the old man helped himself generously and began at once to stow the provender away without regard to the need or comfort of the others about his board.
But Maw Pritchett and her son and daughter seemed to be used to the old man's way, and they helped each other and the Bray girls with no niggard hand. Nor did the shuttle of conversation lag.
"Why, I ain't been in the old doctor's house since he died," said Mrs. Pritchett, reflectively. "Mis' Hammon', she's been up here two or three times, an' she allus goes up an' looks things over; but I'm too fat for walkin' up to Hillcrest--I be," concluded the lady, with a chuckle.
She seemed as jolly and full of fun as her husband was morose. Cyrus Pritchett only glowered on the Bray girls when he looked at them at all.
But Lyddy and 'Phemie joined in the conversation with the rest of the family. 'Phemie, although she had made so much fun of Lucas at first, now made amends by declaring him to be a hero--and sticking to it!
"I'd never have got out of that pool if it hadn't been for Lucas," she repeated; "unless I could have drunk up the water and walked ashore that way! And o-o-oh! wasn't it cold!"
"Hope you're not going to feel the effects of it later," said her sister, still anxious.
"I'm all right," assured the confident 'Phemie.
"I dunno as it'll be fit for you gals to stay in the old house to-night," urged Mrs. Pritchett. "You'll hafter have some wood cut."
"I'll do that when I take their stuff up to Hillcrest," said Lucas, eagerly, but flushing again as though stricken with a sudden fever.
"There are no stoves in the house, I suppose?" Lyddy asked, wistfully.
"Bless ye! Dr. Polly wouldn't never have a stove in his house, saving a cook-stove in the kitchen, an' of course, that's ate up with rust afore this," exclaimed the farmer's wife. "He said open fireplaces assured every room its proper ventilation. He didn't believe in these new-fangled ways of shuttin' up chimbleys. My! but he was powerful sot on fresh air an' sunshine.
"Onct," pursued Mrs. Pritchett, "he was called to see Mis' Fibbetts--she that was a widder and lived on 'tother side of the ridge, on the road to Adams. She had a mis'ry of some kind, and was abed with all the winders of her room tight closed.