at he wanted."

"What did he want, honey?" asked the old lady in an awestruck whisper.

"Egg-shell china and cut glass."

"And you wouldn't let him! Woman! What do you want?"

"A set of tulip-yellow dishes, with Dutch little figures on them. They
are so quaint and they would harmonize perfectly with this room."

The old lady laughed gleefully.

"My! I wouldn't 'a' missed this for a dollar," she cried. "It jest does
my soul good. More'n that, if you really like Marthy's dishes and are
going to take care of them and use them right, I'll give you mine, too.
I ain't never had a girl. I've always hoped she'd 'a' had some jedgment
of her own, and not been eternally apin', if I had, but the Lord may 'a'
saved me many a disappointment by sendin' all mine boys. Not that I'm
layin' the babies on to the Lord at all----I jest got into the habit of
sayin' that, 'cos everybody else does, but all mine, I had a purty
good idy how I got them. If a girl of mine wouldn't 'a' had more sense,
raised right with me, I'd' a' been purty bad cut up over it. Of course,
I can't be held responsible for the girls my boys married, but t'other
day Emmeline----that's John's wife----John is the youngest, and I sort
o' cling to him----Emmeline she says to me, 'Mother, can't I have this
old pink and green teapot?' My heart warmed right up to the child, and
I says, 'What do you want it for, Emmeline?' And she says, 'To draw the
tea in.' Cracky Dinah! That fool woman meant to set my grandmother's
weddin' present from her pa and ma, dishes same as Marthy Washington
used, on the stove to bile the tea in. I jest snorted! 'No, says I, 'you
can't! 'Fore I die,' says I, 'I'll meet up with some woman that 'll love
dishes and know how to treat them.' I think jest about as much of David
as I do my own boys, and I don't make no bones of the fact that he's a
heap more of a man. I'd jest as soon my dishes went to his children
as to John's. I'll give you every piece I got, if you'll take keer of
them."

"Would it be right?" wavered the girl.

"Right! Why, I'm jest tellin' you the fool wimmen would bile tea in
them, make grease sassers of them, and use them to dish up the bakin'
on! Wouldn't you a heap rather see them go into a cupboard like David's
ma's is in, where they'd be taken keer of, if they was yours? I guess
you would!"

"Well if you feel that way, and really want us to have them, I know
David will build another little cupboard on the other side of th