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“He might have waited just a minute to see,” said Miss Pickett indignantly, but Mrs. Flagg’s head and shoulders were already far out of the stage window–the house was on her side. “She ain’t got in yet,” she told Miss Pickett triumphantly. “I could see ’em quite a spell. With that trunk, too! I do declare, how inconsiderate some folks is!”

“‘T was pushin’ an acquaintance most too far, wa’n’t it?” agreed Miss Pickett. “There, ‘t will be somethin’ laughable to tell Mis’ Timms. I never see anything more divertin’. I shall kind of pity that woman if we have to stop an’ git her as we go back this afternoon.”

“Oh, don’t let’s forgit to watch for her,” exclaimed Mrs. Flagg, beginning to brush off the dust of travel. “There, I feel an excellent appetite, don’t you? And we ain’t got more ‘n three or four miles to go, if we have that. I wonder what Mis’ Timms is likely to give us for dinner; she spoke of makin’ a good many chicken-pies, an’ I happened to remark how partial I was to ’em. She felt above most of the things we had provided for us over to the conference. I know she was always counted the best o’ cooks when I knew her so well to Longport. Now, don’t you forget, if there’s a suitable opportunity, to inquire about the drop-cakes;” and Miss Pickett, a little less doubtful than before, renewed her promise.

IV.

“My gracious, won’t Mis’ Timms be pleased to see us! It ‘s just exactly the day to have company. And ain’t Baxter a sweet pretty place?” said Mrs. Flagg, as they walked up the main street. “Cynthy Pickett, now ain’t you proper glad you come? I felt sort o’ calm about it part o’ the time yesterday, but I ain’t felt so like a girl for a good while. I do believe I’m goin’ to have a splendid time.”

Miss Pickett glowed with equal pleasure as she paced along. She was less expansive and enthusiastic than her companion, but now that they were fairly in Baxter, she lent herself generously to the occasion. The social distinction of going away to spend a day in company with Mrs. Flagg was by no means small. She arranged the folds of her shawl more carefully over her arm so as to show the pretty palm-leaf border, and then looked up with great approval to the row of great maples that shaded the broad sidewalk. “I wonder if we can’t contrive to make time to go an’ see old Miss Nancy Fell?” she ventured to ask Mrs. Flagg. “There ain’t a great deal o’ time before the stage goes at four o’clock; ‘t will pass quickly, but I should hate to have her feel hurt. If she was one we had visited often at home, I shouldn’t care so much, but such folks feel any little slight. She was a member of our church; I think a good deal of that.”

“Well, I hardly know what to say,” faltered Mrs. Flagg coldly. “We might just look in a minute; I shouldn’t want her to feel hurt.”

“She was one that always did her part, too,” said Miss Pickett, more boldly. “Mr. Cronin used to say that she was more generous with her little than many was with their much. If she hadn’t lived in a poor part of the town, and so been occupied with a different kind of people from us, ‘t would have made a difference. They say she’s got a comfortable little home over here, an’ keeps house for a nephew. You know she was to our meeting one Sunday last winter, and ‘peared dreadful glad to get back; folks seemed glad to see her, too. I don’t know as you were out.”

“She always wore a friendly look,” said Mrs. Flagg indulgently. “There, now, there’s Mis’ Timms’s residence; it’s handsome, ain’t it, with them big spruce-trees. I expect she may be at the window now, an see us as we come along. Is my bonnet on straight, an’ everything? The blinds looks open in the room this way; I guess she’s to home fast enough.”