me regular
or not: Mr. Mays is mighty poor pay, and I suppose you won't ever get
your dues from him; but maybe Mr. Sapp can collect it off of him some
way. And Bert Mowrer was there: he's a sassy boy. His folks don't make
him mind at home at all, and 'most every teacher has trouble with him.
Mr. Redding, the teacher we had last winter, licked him with a beech
gad, and he behaved hisself after that. And there's Maggie Loper; her
mother needs her at home real bad, but she'll get to come all summer.
She's the only girl, and there are six grown boys; and the family set a
heap o' store by Maggie."

This stream of talk was interrupted by the entrance of Mr. Sapp and the
two boys; and soon after Mary called them all to supper. There was
hardly space to pass between the stove and the table in the kitchen, and
several splint-bottomed chairs had to be brought from the front room;
but at last all were seated, and, after Mr. Sapp said grace,
conversation began in a loud and cheerful tone. The plate of hot
biscuits was first passed to Elvira, then the platter of fried ham, then
the butter, the young radishes and onions, and later the blue bowl
containing stewed dried apples. Mrs. Sapp poured out the hot coffee,
saying, "Our folks want coffee three times a day, and want it pretty
strong." The sugar-bowl, containing brown sugar, was passed around, that
each one might sweeten his coffee according to his taste; then the
cream-pitcher, full of rich cream. Mr. Sapp drank three cups of coffee,
and ate in proportion, and frequently passed the meat and bread to
Elvira, hospitably urging her to eat more.

After supper, Mrs. Sapp invited Elvira to come out and see her little
chickens. She had sixty, all hatched within the last two or three weeks,
and another hen would come off next week with a brood. "I've got some
young turkeys, too," she said, "but they hain't done very well this
spring, because it was so rainy. Two died, and I have to look after the
others to keep 'em out of the wet grass." Then they looked at the
garden, and Mrs. Sapp remarked that the boys must stick the peas right
off, went on to the milk-house,--a log shanty beyond the well,--and
finally came back to the sitting-room, where, as there was yet an hour
of daylight, Mrs. Sapp sat down to the quilting-frame. Elvira borrowed a
thimble and assisted her, having only to ply her needle and listen. The
stream of talk ran on the subject of quilts, the various patterns in
which th