re warn't no bread and biscuit like
Huldy's; and her butter was like solid lumps o' gold; and there wern't
no pies to equal hers; and so the doctor never felt the loss o' Miss
Carryl at table. Then there was Huldy allers opposite to him, with
her blue eyes and her cheeks like two fresh peaches. She was kind o'
pleasant to look at; and the more the doctor looked at her the better
he liked her; and so things seemed to be goin' on quite quiet and
comfortable ef it hadn't been that Mis' Pipperidge and Mis' Deakin
Blodgett and Mis' Sawin got their heads together a talkin' about things.

"'Poor man,' says Mis' Pipperidge, 'what can that child that he's got
there do towards takin' the care of all that place? It takes a mature
woman,' she says, 'to tread in Mis' Carryl's shoes.'

"'That it does,' said Mis' Blodgett; and, when things once get to
runnin' down hill, there ain't no stoppin' on 'em,' says she.

"Then Mis' Sawin she took it up. (Ye see, Mis' Sawin used to go out to
dress-makin', and was sort o' 'jealous, 'cause folks sot more by Huldy
than they did by her). 'Well,' says she, 'Huldy Peters is well enough at
her trade. I never denied that, though I do say I never did believe in
her way o' makin' button-holes; and I must say, if 'twas the dearest
friend I hed, that I thought Huldy tryin' to fit Mis' Kit-tridge's
plumb-colored silk was a clear piece o' presumption; the silk was jist
spiled, so 'twarn't fit to come into the meetin'-house. I must say,
Huldy's a gal that's always too ventersome about takin' 'spon-sibilities
she don't know nothin' about.'

"'Of course she don't,' said Mis' Deakin Blodgett. 'What does she know
about all the lookin' and see-in' to that there ought to be in guidin'
the minister's house. Huldy's well meanin', and she's good at her
work, and good in the singers' seat; but Lordy massy! she hain't got
no experience. Parson Carryl ought to have an experienced woman to
keep house for him. There's the spring house-cleanin' and the fall
house-cleanin' to be seen to, and the things to be put away from the
moths; and then the gettin' ready for the association and all the
ministers' meetin's; and the makin' the soap and the candles, and
settin' the hens and turkeys, watchin' the calves, and seein' after
the hired men and the garden; and there that 'are blessed man jist sets
there at home as serene, and has nobody 'round but that 'are gal, and
don't even know how things must be a runnin' to waste!'

"