y if I was you, Abby," she said. "There, I suppose
if 't was me I should worry a good deal more! I expect I should lay
awake nights." But Abby answered nothing, and they came to a steep
place in the road and found another subject for conversation at the top.

"Your aunt don't know we 're coming?" asked the chief guest of the
occasion.

"Oh, no, I never send her word," said Miss Pendexter. "She 'd be so
desirous to get everything ready, just as she used to."

"She never seemed to make any trouble o' havin' company; she always
appeared so easy and pleasant, and let you set with her while she made
her preparations," said Mrs. Hand, with great approval. "Some has such
a dreadful way of making you feel inopportune, and you can't always
send word you 're comin'. I did have a visit once that's always been a
lesson to me; 't was years ago; I don't know 's I ever told you?"

"I don't believe you ever did," responded the listener to this somewhat
indefinite prelude.

"Well, 't was one hot summer afternoon. I set forth an' took a great
long walk 'way over to Mis' Eben Fulham's, on the crossroad between the
cranberry ma'sh and Staples's Corner. The doctor was drivin' that way,
an' he give me a lift that shortened it some at the last; but I never
should have started, if I 'd known 't was so far. I had been promisin'
all summer to go, and every time I saw Mis' Fulham, Sundays, she 'd say
somethin' about it. We wa'n't very well acquainted, but always
friendly. She moved here from Bedford Hill."

"Oh, yes; I used to know her," said Abby, with interest.

"Well, now, she did give me a beautiful welcome when I got there,"
continued Mrs. Hand. "'T was about four o'clock in the afternoon, an'
I told her I 'd come to accept her invitation if 't was convenient, an'
the doctor had been called several miles beyond and expected to be
detained, but he was goin' to pick me up as he returned about seven; 't
was very kind of him. She took me right in, and she did appear so
pleased, an' I must go right into the best room where 't was cool, and
then she said she 'd have tea early, and I should have to excuse her a
short time. I asked her not to make any difference, and if I could n't
assist her; but she said no, I must just take her as I found her; and
she give me a large fan, and off she went.

"There. I was glad to be still and rest where 't was cool, an' I set
there in the rockin'-chair an' enjoyed it for a while, an' I heard