Miss Eliza's sharp eyes would certainly have noticed, had her niece
helped herself to too many at a time, so poor Arethusa was most
unpleasantly situated. And every request that she was forced to make
for that plate of bread, for Timothy pretended every now and then not
to hear the first time she asked, added to her fury with him.

But this continued warfare did not seem to affect Timothy's appetite in
the slightest. He consumed a most alarming quantity of biscuits and
those strawberry preserves Miss Eliza had produced in his honor.

When he was receiving his third helping of ham, Arethusa leaned over
close and whispered in his ear, but very, very softly, so that Miss
Eliza would not hear her, "_Pig_!"

She also lost no single opportunity of conveying to him, though much
more by expression than by actual word of mouth, how exceedingly
ridiculous she thought he looked in his borrowed clothing. It was far
too small for him in every possible way. Ross Worthington was a large
man, but Timothy was even larger. He topped Arethusa, who was quite
tall for a girl, by considerably more than half a head, and he was
built all over in proportion.

When he was not covertly teasing his next-door neighbor, Timothy
carried on a very polite conversation with Miss Eliza on sundry country
matters. He complimented the stand of corn in the Redfield lot near
that "V" lot of his own, and told her that it did not seem to show the
need of rain so badly as did his corn; and Miss Eliza bridled at the
compliment. She was proud of her ability as a farmer, and that the
"Redfield Farm" could hold its own among the other farms in the county,
even after all the male members of the family had been long gone to
their reward, was due solely to Miss Eliza's indefatigable energy. She
deserved the compliment; and any others of like tenor that Timothy
might have given.

But she was modestly deprecatory, though her old eyes did shine, and
her appreciation was written all over her. That had always been a wet
piece of ground, said Miss Eliza; she hadn't been so sure corn would do
at all well there. She was a bit surprised herself.

It was rather sad, remarked Timothy, after a bit, that this rain
couldn't have come just two or three weeks sooner. He was afraid that
some of their farmer friends had lost some money by the drought.

Miss Eliza agreed that it was sad. She specified one or two persons
whose crops had not seemed to her to be quite up to the mark.