dgicky now and again, but she's seen trouble, you know, and she doos
feel it hard to be laid up, and so many looking to her at home. Turn
round, dear, jest a dite--there!"

"I can't help it, Miss Peace," said Jenny. "There's no reason why Mis'
Means should speak up and say the neck wrinkled, when anybody can see
it sets like a duck's foot in the mud. I don't mind what she says to
me, but I ain't goin' to see you put upon, nor yet other folks ain't.
I should like to know! and that wrapper she cut for Tudie Peaslee set
so bad, you'd think she'd fitted it on the pump in the back yard,
Mis' Peaslee said so herself."

"Hi-hi!" cried Anne Peace, softly, with an apprehensive glance toward
the door; "don't speak so loud, Jennie. Tudie ain't so easy a form to
fit as you, not near. And you say she was real put about, do ye, at
the picnic being put off?"

"She was so!" Jenny assented, seeing that the subject was to be
changed. "She'd got her basket all packed last night, she made so sure
'twas goin' to be fine to-day. Chicken sandwiches, she had, and baked
a whole pan of sponge-drops, jest because some one--you know who--is
fond of 'em." Miss Peace nodded sagely, with her mouth full of pins,
and would have smiled if she could; "and now they've put it off till
Saturday, 'cause the minister can't go before then, and every livin'
thing will be spoiled."

"Dear, dear!" cried Miss Anne, her kind face clouding over; "that does
seem too bad, don't it? all those nice things! and Tudie makes the
best sponge-cakes I ever eat, pretty nigh."

Jenny smiled, and stretched her hand toward a basket she had brought.
"They won't really be wasted, Miss Peace," she said. "Tudie thought
you liked 'em, and I've got some of 'em here for you, this very
minute. You was to eat 'em for your own supper, Tudie told me to tell
you so."

"Well, I do declare, if that isn't thoughtful!" exclaimed Miss Peace,
looking much gratified. "Tudie is a sweet girl, I must say. Delia is
real fond of cake, and she's been longing for some, but it doos seem
as if I couldn't find time to make it, these days."

"I should think not!" cried Jenny (who was something of a pepper-pot,
it must be confessed), "I should think not, when you have her to take
care of, and her work and yours to do, and all. And, Miss
Peace,--Tudie meant the sponge-drops for _you_, every one. She told me
so."

"Yes, dear, to be sure she did, and that's why I feel so pleased, just
as much as if I h