Rowan threw her shawl over
her head, and went next door to take Mrs. Waldo completely by
surprise. The good woman immediately invented an intricate problem
in crochet work demanding instant solution. Mr. Rowan had brought
home a crayon enlargement of a daguerreotype of Ma, taken before she
was married, when they wore their hair combed down over their ears,
and wide lace collars fastened with a big cameo pin, and puffed
sleeves with the armholes nearly at the elbows. They wore lace mitts
then, too. The twins thought it looked so funny, but Pa said: "It was
all the style in them days. Laws! I mind the first time I took her
home from singin' school. . . . Tell you where less hide it. In
between the straw tick, and the feather tick." And Luanna May said:
"What if company should come?" Elmer Lonnie ran over to Mrs. Waldo's
to tell Ma that Pa had come home, and wanted his supper right quick,
because he had to get back to the store, there was so much trade in
the evenings now.
"I declare, Emmeline Rowan, you're gettin' to be a reg'lar gadabout,"
said Mr. Rowan, very savagely. "Gad, gad, gad, from mornin' till
night. Ain't they time in daylight fer you an' Hat Waldo to talk
about your neighbors 'at you can't stay home long enough to git me
my supper?"
He winked at the twins so funny that Alfaretta, who always was
kind of flighty, made a little noise with her soft palate and tried
to pass it off for a cough.
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