you get out of it? Tell us that. Now, a dinner of any kind
is something that is beyond me. I can imagine you transfixed with
horror. Just tell us what you did."

"Why, you will wonder who came to my rescue; but I tell you, girls,
Nellis is the best fellow in the world. If I was half as good a
Christian as he is, without any of that to help him, I should be a
thankful mortal. I didn't expect him, thought he had gone away for the
day; but when he came he took in the situation at a glance. Half a dozen
words of explanation set him right. 'Never mind.' he said. 'Tell him we
didn't mean to have dinner so early, but we flew around and got them a
bite--then let's do it.' 'But what will the bite be?' I asked, and I
stood looking up at him like a ninny who had never gotten a meal in her
life. 'Why, bread, and butter, and coffee, and a dish of sauce, and a
pickle, or something of that sort;' and the things really sounded
appetizing as he told them off. 'Come,' he said, 'I'll grind the coffee,
and make it; I used to be a dabster at that dish when I was in college.
Jennie, you set the table, and Ned will help; he's well enough for that,
I know.'

"And in less time than it takes to tell it, he had us all at work, baby
and all; and, really, we managed to get up quite a decent meal, out of
nothing, you understand; had it ready when father drove up; and he said
it was as good a dinner as he had had in a week. But, oh, me! I'm glad
such days don't come very often. You see, none of you know anything
about it. You girls with your kitchens supplied with first-class cooks,
and without any more idea of what goes on in the way of work before you
are fed than though you lived in the moon, what do you know about such a
day as I have described? Here's Marion, to be sure, who has about as
empty a purse as mine; but as for kitchens, and wash days, and picked-up
dinners, she is a novice."

"I know all about those last articles, so far as eating them is
concerned," Marion said, grimly. "I know things about them that you
don't, and never will. But I have made up my mind that living a
Christian life isn't walking on a feather bed, whether you live in a
palace or a fourth-rate board-house, and teach school. I shouldn't
wonder if there were such things as vexations everywhere."

"I don't doubt it," Ruth Erskine said, speaking more quickly than was
usual to her. The others had been more or less communicative with each
other. It wasn't in Ruth's natu