der and almost invisible column of steam arose from the long
spout of the coffee-pot. That was the most critical moment, and it now
being safely past, Miss Penelope hastily sent away all the cup-bearers
in a body. But she still hovered anxiously over the pot, gravely
considering how many minutes longer it should rest on its trivet over
the glowing coals. Hers was a quaint little figure. She wore a queer
little black dress, very short and narrow, made after some peculiar
fashion of her own, and over it a queerer little cape of the same stuff.
Her cap on the other hand was singularly large and white, and the ruffle
around her face was very wide and very stiff. The snapping black eyes
under the ruffle were never still, and the clawlike little hands were
never at rest. David in his idle way used to wonder what she worried
about and fidgeted over in her sleep. But it was hard to think of her
asleep; it would have been easier to fancy a sleeping weasel.
Nevertheless the boy liked Miss Penelope. Ruth and he had learned while
they were little children, that there was no unkindness in the snapping
of her sharp little black eyes, and that the terrible things she said
were as harmless as heat lightning. Even the little cup-bearers, black,
brown, and yellow, all knew how kind-hearted she was, and did not mind
in the least the most appalling threats uttered by her sweet, soft
voice. She always gave them something before she sent them flying back
to the cabins. Everybody liked her better than the widow Broadnax who
never scolded or meddled and indeed, rarely spoke at all to any one upon
any subject. For the household had long since come to understand that
this lady, like many another of her kind, was silent mainly because she
had nothing to say; and that she never found fault, simply because she
did not care. Indifference like hers often passes for amiability; and
that sort of motionless silence conceals a vacuum quite as often as it
covers a deep. Only one thing ever fully aroused the widow Broadnax; and
this was to see her half-sister taking authority in her own brother's
house. And indeed, that were enough to rouse the veriest mollusk of a
woman. In the case of the widow Broadnax this natural feeling was not at
all affected by the fact that she was too indolent to make the exertion
to claim and fill her rightful place as mistress of the house. It did
not matter in the least that she lay and slept like a sloth while poor
little Miss