y to
some of the South End crowd and tried to get just about all that silver
on the table, I guess. Of course, it looked mighty nice but when the
women came to eat they didn't know what to do with it. They got pretty
miserable, all sticking to just the one knife and fork and spoon. And
Jessie got so rattled that she just about forgot to use the stuff too.
And finally old Mrs. Vingie, that Jessie asked just to have the news
spread, got up mad as a hornet and marched out, saying she was too old
to be insulted.

"Until a week ago Bessie Williams wouldn't speak to Alex. You know her
hair's got awful white this last year and of course, her being kind of
stout, she does look older than Al. But she says that's no reason why,
when a peddler comes to the door with anything, Al needs to let the man
think she's his mother.

"Mrs. Jerry Dustin's been to see Uncle Tony's portraiture hanging in
the art gallery. She says it's so lifelike it made her cry. And she's
awful happy about Peter. Peter's been posing for a picture for Bernard
Rollins and while he was in the studio he got to fooling with the
paints and brushes, and lo and behold, if he didn't daub up something
that looked like his mother's face when she's smiling. They say
Rollins jumped he was so surprised and he put the boy through some
paces and swore he'd make a better artist out of him than he was
himself. So there you are, and now Mrs. Dustin is dreaming of Peter in
Italy, Peter in Rome, Peter everywhere in creation, and her tagging
along with his brushes and dust rags. So she's happy.

"And Milly Sears is house-cleaning like mad, for both the boys are
coming home from the ends of the earth to visit. And Alice is putting
off the christening of her baby boy until they come. She was here to
show me the baby the other day. It's a darling. Jocelyn Brownlee came
with her and brought me samples of all her wedding dresses, wedding
gown and all. As soon as the dressmaker is through I'm to go over and
see the whole trousseau.

"There, I nearly forgot the best thing of all. It's about Sam Bobbins.
My! Here we've all been pitying Sam and Fortune's just kicked in his
door and walked in. You remember of course about Sam and his fighting
roosters? Well, Sam went off for Thanksgiving to his sister's and
while he was gone something ate up his prize stock. Must have been a
skunk, Frank Burton says. Well, they say that Sam's heart was just
about broken. Not just