re topping every
minute.

"'Miss Van Arden,' says she, 'how about evenings? I'm used to having
_all_ my evenings.'

"'I ain't, madam,' says I, 'not if there's dinner company. And I know
well enough Nellie ain't, neither.'

"'I--I could have dinner in the middle of the day,' says Miss Van Arden
real pitiful, 'if it weren't that my sister comes in tired at night and
likes a hot meal; but I've got a fireless stove, and it _might_ be
cooked and left in the fireless stove and we could wait on ourselves.'

"'I guess that'll be satisfactory,' says Nellie, dipping her head and
smiling a haughty smile, while I was quivering to git a word in Miss Van
Arden's ear. But, of course, there was no chance. And Miss Van Arden,
she went on to say that she didn't eat meat herself, but her sister
liked to have it, so--'

"'I have to have meat myself,' hops in that Nellie.

"'Oh, of course,' Miss Van Arden said; she didn't dictate to others, but
personally she didn't eat meat; but she didn't need any special
vegetable dishes made for her.

"'You shall have 'em if you want 'em, ma'am,' says I; then, 'and I
guess the cook will have something to say about the kitchen table; I
ain't never much on meat myself.' I guess that was one for miss!

"'Oh, thank you,' says Miss Van Arden real grateful--she's jest as
sweet's they make 'em, Miss Patsy. Then she looked very timidly at
Nellie and the color came into her face.

"'I should like to have you take your meals with me if--if I were
alone,' she stammers, 'but my sister--we have so little time
together--we'll try not to make much waiting--' She got into a kind of
mess of stammers, when I cut in and told her that we much preferred to
eat in our own pantry, which was big enough for a dining-room.

"Well, you can guess, Miss Patsy, that about this time I was wishing
myself well out of it all, for I've lived with notional folks before,
and folks who wanted to make friends of their help, and what I like with
strangers is to have them keep their side of the fence and I'll keep
mine; I ain't seeking any patronage from nobody, and I got too much
self-respect not to be respectful. But I'd promised Mrs. Caines; so I
simply told what wages I wanted, and I made 'em reasonable, too. But
Nellie--my! she named a sum two dollars a week more'n she ever'd got and
four dollars more'n she was worth; and for hatred of meddling I sat
still and let that poor little sweet Babe in the Woods agree to it. But
I mi