it from the standpoint
of wives and mothers of families. There is the food which you have
brought, unwholesome, indigestible; there is mine, approved of by the
foremost physicians and men of science of the day. For ten years I
have had serious trouble with the alimentary canal, and this food
has kept me in strength and vigor. Had I attempted to live upon your
fresh biscuits, your frosted cakes, your rich pastry, I should be in
my grave. One of those biscuits which you see there before you is
equal in nourishment to six of your indigestible pies, or every cake
upon the table. The great cause of the insanity and dyspepsia so
prevalent among the rural classes is rich pie and cake. I feel it my
duty to warn you. I hope, ladies, that you will consider carefully
what I have said."

With that, Mrs. Jameson withdrew herself a little way and sat down
under a tree on a cushion which had been brought in the carryall. We
looked at one another, but we did not say anything for a few minutes.

Finally, Mrs. White, who is very good-natured, remarked that she
supposed that she meant well, and she had better put her pies back in
the basket or they would dry up. We all began putting back the things
which Mrs. Jameson had taken out, except the broken jumbles, and
were very quiet. However, we could not help feeling astonished and
aggrieved at what Mrs. Jameson had said about the insanity and
dyspepsia in our village, since we could scarcely remember one case
of insanity, and very few of us had to be in the least careful as
to what we ate. Mrs. Peter Jones did say in a whisper that if Mrs.
Jameson had had dyspepsia ten years on those hard biscuits it
was more than any of us had had on our cake and pie. We left the
biscuits, and the two paper packages which Mrs. Jameson had brought,
in a heap on the table just where she had put them.

After we had replaced the baskets we all scattered about, trying to
enjoy ourselves in the sweet pine woods, but it was hard work, we
were so much disturbed by what had happened. We wondered uneasily,
too, what Flora Clark would say about her jumbles. We were all quiet,
peaceful people who dreaded altercation; it made our hearts beat too
fast. Taking it altogether, we felt very much as if some great,
overgrown bird of another species had gotten into our village nest,
and we were in the midst of an awful commotion of strange wings and
beak. Still we agreed that Mrs. Jameson had probably meant well.

Grandma