"Did you miss me so much? I am afraid of being a trouble sometimes," she returned with a delicate evasion that I noticed.
"Well, you needn't be; that's some of your father's notions. An' a girl without a mother needs a lot of training, though I must say you do pick up things mighty easy. Oh, boys, don't eat her up jes' if you hadn't had a dinner."
"If you poured some milk over her you could eat her up," said Chris, laughing, "an' some sugar on top of her head."
"Think of the sticky mess in my hair!"
"Oh, but you'd jes' dissolve an' be like—" rolling his eyes about to assist his brain in capturing a comparison—"like a lovely pudding."
"What an idea!" and Ben made a wry face.
"Bring out a stool," said mother. "So M'liss Hatch comes now. Is she good for anything?"
"Yes, I like her ever so much. Aunt Becky grew very cross and she and father had some words, and M'liss likes to show me about things. We have real good times when I'm home from school."
Mother nodded. "She goes home at night?"
"Yes."