Tisdale's altered position--and Mrs. Terriberry
missed no opportunity to convey the impression that Kincaid's resources
were unlimited--the tide turned and the buffalo berry jelly, the Lady
Baltimore cake, baked beans and Mrs. Parrott's tinned lobster salad,
were the straws which in Crowheart always showed which way the wind was
blowing. That the ladies bearing these toothsome offerings had not been
speaking to Essie for some months past was a small matter which they
deemed best to forget.

Not so Mrs. Terriberry.

Mrs. Terriberry not only had Essie Tisdale's score to pay off but her
own as well, and who knows but that the latter was the sharper
incentive? To have been obliged to watch through a crack in the curtain
the fashionable world rustle by on its way to Mrs. Alva Jackson's euchre
had occasioned a pang not easily forgotten. To have knowledge of the
monthly meetings of Mrs. Parrott's Shadow Embroidery Class only through
the Society Column of the Crowheart _Courier_ and to be deprived of the
privilege of hearing Mrs. Abe Tutts's paper upon Wagnerian music at the
Culture Club were slights that rankled.

She was suspiciously close at hand when the ladies appeared in the
office of the Terriberry House with their culinary successes; also she
was wearing the red foulard which never went out of the closet except to
funerals and important functions.

Although the most conspicuous thing about these early callers was the
parcels they carried, Mrs. Terriberry chose to ignore them.

"Why, how do you do, Mrs. Parrott, and Miss Starr, too. It's a lovely
day to be out, isn't it?" Her voice was distinctly patronizing and she
extended a languid hand to Mrs. Jackson. "And usin' your brain like you
do, Mrs. Tutts, writin' them pieces for the Culture Club, I suppose you
have to git exercise."

"I've brought Essie some lobster salad from a receipt that mamma sent
me," said Mrs. Parrott when she could get an opening, "and while it's
canned lobster, it's really delicious!"

"The whites of sixteen aigs I put in this Lady Baltimore cake, and it's
light as a feather."

Mrs. Terriberry made no offer to take the package which Mrs. Jackson
extended.

"Just a little taste of buffalo berry jelly for Essie," said Miss Starr,
with her most radiant smile. "Her uncle might enjoy it."

"I ain't forgot," said Mrs. Tutts, "how fond Ess is of brown bread, so I
says to myself I'll just take some of my baked beans along, too. Tutts
says I be