s always scolded dreadfully about the extra washing, but mother
said she slept on sheets when she came out, and some one washed them.

One time Sally said: "Mother, have you ever figured out how many
hundred sheets you've washed since, to pay for that?"

Mother said: "No, but I just hope it will make a stack high enough for
me to climb from into Heaven."

Sally said: "The talk at the church always led me to think that you
flew to Heaven."

Mother answered: "So I get there, I don't mind if I creep."

Then Sally knew it was time to stop. We always knew. And we stopped,
too!

We had heard that "All things" quotation, until the first two words
were as much as mother ever needed repeat of it any more, and we had
cooked, washed for, and waited on people travelling, until Leon got so
when he saw any one coming--of course we knew all the neighbours, and
their horses and wagons and carriages--he always said: "Here comes
another 'Even So!'" He said we had done "even so" to people until it
was about our share, but mother said our share was going to last until
the Lord said, "Well done, good and faithful servant," and took us
home. She had much more about the stranger at the gate and
entertaining angels unawares; why, she knew every single thing in the
Bible that meant it was her duty to feed and give a bed to any one, no
matter how dirty or miserable looking he was! So when Leon came in one
evening at dusk and said, "There's another 'Even So' coming down the
Little Hill!" all of us knew that we'd have company for the night, and
we had.

I didn't like that man, but some of the others seemed to find him
amusing. Maybe it was because I had nothing to do but sit and watch
him, and so I saw more of him than the ones who came and went all the
time. As long as there was any one in the room, he complained
dreadfully about his sore foot, and then cheered up and talked, and he
could tell interesting things. He was young, but he must have been
most everywhere and seen everything. He was very brave and could stand
off three men who were going to take from him the money he was carrying
to buy a piece of land in Illinois. The minute the grown folks left
the room to milk, do the night feeding, and begin supper, he twisted in
his chair and looked at every door, and went and stood at the back
dining-room window, where he could see the barn and what was out there,
and coming back he took a peep into father's and mother's room