terials, cut, and buttons;
the plainswoman had proved herself the better gentlewoman of the two.

"Get me a spotty calico, white, with a red dot, will you, the next time
you're over to Ervay? Buttons accordin' to your judgment; but if you could
get some white chiny with a red ring, I think they'd match it handsome."
She frowned reflectively. "You're sure one of them loose, hangy things 'd
become me? Then you can bring it over Tuesday, when you come to the hunt."

"What hunt?" asked Judith, in all simplicity.

"Why, the wolf-hunt. Peter Hamilton come here three days ago and made
arrangements for 'em all to have supper here after it was done. 'Lowed
there was a young Eastern lady in the party, Miss Colebrooke, who couldn't
wait to meet me. Course you're goin', Judy? You've plumb forgot it, or
somethin' happened to the messenger. Who ever hyeard tell of anythin'
happenin' in this yere county 'thout you bein' the very axle of it?"

Judith had not betrayed her chagrin by the least change of countenance. To
the most searching glance every faculty was intent on the shirt-waist with
the ringed buttons. Yet both women felt--by a species of telepathy wholly
feminine--that Judith was deeply wounded. Loyal Sarah Yellett decided that
Hamilton's guests would get but a scant supper from her if her friend
Judith was to be unfavored with an invitation, while Judith, in her own
warm heart, resented as deeply as Peter's slight of herself, his tale of
Miss Colebrooke's impatience to meet Mrs. Yellett. The matriarch's
dominant personality evoked many a smile even from those most deeply
conscious of her worth; but it wasn't like Peter to make a spectacle of
his ruggedly honest neighbor. Nevertheless she remarked, coolly:

"I sha'n't be able to bring your shirt-waist things up Tuesday, I'm
afraid, Mrs. Yellett, but I'll try to bring them towards the end of the
week." Then, with a swift change of subject, "How are the boys getting on
with their education, Miss Carmichael?"

The boys looked at Mary out of the corners of their eyes. Their prowess in
the field of letters had not been publicly discussed before. Mary
Carmichael, emboldened by Judith's presence, looked at her tormentors with
a judicious glance.

"The girls are doing fairly well," she replied, suppressing the mischief
in her eyes, "but the boys, poor fellows, I think something must be the
matter with them. Did they ever fall on their heads when they were babies,
Mrs. Yellett?"