Volume I Part 80 (1/2)
”And your friend Mr. Olmney has sent us a corn-basket fill of the superbest apples you ever saw. He has one tree of the finest in Queechy, he says.”
”_My_ friend!” said Fleda, colouring a little.
”Well, I don't know whose he is, if he isn't yours,” said Hugh. ”And even the Finns sent us some fish that their brother had caught, because, they said, they had more than they wanted. And Dr. Quackenboss sent us a goose and a turkey. We didn't like to keep them, but we were afraid, if we sent them back, it would not be understood.”
”Send them back!” said Fleda. ”That would never do! All Queechy would have rung with it.”
”Well, we didn't,” said Hugh. ”But so we sent one of them to Barby's old mother, for Christmas.”
”Poor Dr. Quackenboss!” said Fleda. ”That man has as near as possible killed me two or three times. As for the others, they are certainly the oddest of all the finny tribes. I must go out and see Barby for a minute.”
It was a good many minutes, however, before she could get free to do any such thing.
”You han't lost no flesh,” said Barby, shaking hands with her anew. ”What did they think of Queechy keep, down in York?”
”I don't know ? I didn't ask them,” said Fleda. ”How goes the world with you, Barby?”
”I'm mighty glad you are come home, Fleda,” said Barby, lowering her voice.
”Why?” said Fleda, in a like tone.
”I guess I aint all that's glad of it,” Miss Elster went on, with a glance of her bright eye.
”I guess not,” said Fleda, reddening a little ? ”but what is the matter?”
”There's two of our friends ha'n't made us but one visit apiece since ? oh, ever since some time in October!”
”Well, never mind the people,” said Fleda. ”Tell me what you were going to say.”
”And Mr. Olmney,” said Barby, not minding her, ”he's took and sent us a great basket chock full of apples. Now, wa'n't that smart of him, when he knowed there wa'n't no one here that cared about 'em ?”
”They are a particularly fine kind,” said Fleda.
”Did you hear about the goose and turkey?”
”Yes,” said Fleda, laughing.
”The doctor thinks he has done the thing just about right, this time, I 'spect. He had ought to take out a patent right for his invention. He'd feel spry if he knowed who ate one on 'em.”
”Never mind the doctor, Barby. Was this what you wanted to see me for?”
”No,” said Barby, changing her tone. ”I'd give something it was. I've been all but at my wit's end; for you know, Mis'
Rossitur aint no hand about anything ? I couldn't say a word to her; and ever since he went away, we have been just winding ourselves up. I thought I should clear out, when Mis' Rossitur said, maybe you wa'n't a-coming till next week.”
”But what is it, Barby? what is wrong?”
”There ha'n't been anything right, to my notions, for a long spell,” said Barby, wringing out her dish-cloth hard, and flinging it down, to give herself uninterruptedly to talk; ”but now you see, Didenhover, nor none of the men, never comes near the house to do a ch.o.r.e; and there aint wood to last three days; and Hugh aint fit to cut it if it was piled up in the yard; and there aint the first stick of it out of the woods yet.”
Fleda sat down, and looked very thoughtfully into the fire.
”He had ought to ha' seen to it afore he went away; but he ha'n't done it, and there it is.”
”Why, who takes care of the cows?” said Fleda.