“Well!”
“Never mind,” Ruth said. “Jennie is going to be thinner.”
“And it seems she will begin to diet this very morning,” Aunt Kate put in.
“Ow-wow!” moaned Jennie at this reminder that they had been refused breakfast.
Captain Tom, however, had handled too many serious situations in France to be browbeaten by a termagant like Miss Susan Timmins. He went down to the kitchen, ordered a good breakfast for all of his party, and threatened to have recourse to the law if the meal was not well and properly served.
“For you keep a public tavern,” he told the sputtering Miss Timmins, “and you cannot refuse to serve travelers who are willing and able to pay. We are on a pleasure trip, and I assure you, Madam, it will be a pleasure to get you into court for any cause.”
On coming back to the front of the house he found two of the neighbors just entering. One proved to be the local doctor’s wife and the other was a kindly looking farmer.
“I knowed that girl warn’t being treated right, right along,” said the man. “And I told Mirandy that I was going to put a stop to it.”
“It is a disgrace,” said the doctor’s wife, “that we should have allowed it to go on so long. I will take the child myself——”
“And so’ll Mirandy,” declared the farmer.