ay dress, a
vivid purple, with trimmings which, for color and variety, looked
"like a patchwork tidy," as Captain Dan expressed it. Also, under still
greater protest, she wore a white apron and cap.

"I feel like my grandmother doin' dishes," Azuba declared when Mrs. Dott
brought the cap and apron to her and insisted on a dress rehearsal. "The
old woman lived to be ninety-five and wore a cap for all the world like
this one for thirty year. She had some excuse for wearin' it--it hid
the place where her hair was thin on top. But I ain't bald and I ain't
ninety-five neither. And why in the world you want me to put an apron on
in the parlor, _I_ don't see. You've been preachin' at me to leave one
off till I was just rememberin' to do it, and now you want me to put it
on again."

"Not this kind of an apron, Azuba. Mrs. Black's maids wear aprons like
that, and so do Mrs. Fenholtz's. It's the proper thing and I expect you
to do it."

"Humph! All right. Land knows I don't want to be improper. But I'd just
like to ask you this: Does that Fenholtz hired help have to wear black
clothes like this dress?"

"Yes, always."

"Well, then I suppose I'll have to do the same, but I hope they don't
feel as much like bein' in mournin' as I do. I thought this reception
thing was supposed to be a good time, but when I looked at myself in the
glass just now, all I could think of was the Trumet post-office draped
up for President McKinley's funeral. I suppose it's style, so it'll have
to be. But if Labe, my husband, should see me now, he'd have a shock, I
guess. Cal'late he'd think he was dead and I'd got word of it afore he
did."

But the food was good and the guests seemed to enjoy it. Some of them
seemed to enjoy Azuba, and Mr. Fenholtz was observed by the indignant
Serena to laugh heartily every time the transformed maid-of-all-work
addressed him.

As they were leaving he said to Captain Dan: "Captain, that maid of
yours is a wonder. If you ever want to get rid of her, let me know. I
thought Mrs. Fenholtz and I had tried every variety of servant, but she
is something fresh."

Daniel grinned. "She's fresh enough, if that's all you want," he
admitted. "That's the main trouble with her, accordin' to my wife. I
like her myself. She reminds me of home."

The Honorable shook his hand. "Home is a good thing to remember," he
said earnestly, "and a bedder thing not to be ashamed of. You are not
ashamed of your home and you do not forget