, pies, syllabubs, and
cakes, to last through the week; as Sunday was the only leisure time
she and her maids had. Mr. Worthy soon saw an uncommon bustle in the
house. All hands were busy. It was nothing but baking, and boiling,
and stewing, and frying, and roasting, and running, and scolding,
and eating. The boy was kept from church to clean the plate, the man
to gather the fruit, the mistress to make the cheese-cakes, the
maids to dress the dinner, and the young ladies to dress themselves.

The truth was, Mrs. Bragwell, who had heard much of the order and
good management of Mr. Worthy's family, but who looked down with
disdain upon them as far less rich than herself, was resolved to
indulge her vanity on the present occasion. She was determined to be
even with Mrs. Worthy, in whose praises Bragwell had been so loud,
and felt no small pleasure in the hope of making her guest uneasy,
in comparing her with his own wife, when he should be struck dumb
with the display both of her skill and her wealth. Mr. Worthy was
indeed struck to behold as large a dinner as he had been used to see
at a justice's meeting. He, whose frugal and pious wife had
accustomed him only to such a plain Sunday's dinner as could be
dressed without keeping any one from church, when he surveyed the
loaded table of his friend, instead of feeling that envy which the
grand preparations were meant to raise, felt nothing but disgust at
the vanity of his friend's wife, mixed with much thankfulness for
the piety and simplicity of his own.

After having made the dinner wait a long time, the Misses Bragwell
marched in, dressed as if they were going to the assize-ball; they
looked very scornfully at having been so hurried, though they had
been dressing ever since they got up, and their fond father, when he
saw them so fine, forgave all their impertinence, and cast an eye of
triumph on Mr. Worthy, who felt he had never loved his own humble
daughters so well as at that moment.

In the afternoon the whole party went to church. To do them justice,
it was indeed their common practice once a day, when the weather was
good, and the road was neither dusty nor dirty, when the minister
did not begin too early, when the young ladies had not been
disappointed of their bonnets on the Saturday night, and when they
had no smart company in the house, who rather wished to stay at
home. When this last was the case, which, to say the truth, happened
pretty often, it was thoug