"Fairly so, though we thought our rooms simply impossible when we first came. Now that we have a rug or two, some comfortable chairs from Portland, and a curtain to hang over our gowns, we shall do. My mirror makes me look very long and Aunt Harriet's makes her look very wide. We shall never know our proper proportions while we are here."
"It might be well for you to exchange once in a while," suggested Gwen. "Where have you been Aunt Cam? I saw you coming along the shore path, not long ago."
"I have been out making calls, and I have brought home our supper in the shape of half a dozen very large puff-ball mushrooms," she added with a laugh.
"What amuses you?"
"I had such a funny time. First I went to the Grays to call on Mrs. Mitchell, and, as there were other callers, Miss Celia and I had a confidential chat upon the subject of supplies. She confided to me that she was afraid to eat mushrooms, that some one had brought her half a dozen big puff-balls this afternoon, and as she knew the Colbys were fond of them she had sent them over there. I stopped at the Colbys on my way to Miss Asquith's and there I learned that the puff-balls had been regarded with suspicion and had been tendered to Miss Maria Skinner. I happened to meet Miss Maria on the road. She had just come from Miss Asquith's. 'Don't mention it,' she said. 'I have been taking over some large mushrooms that Mrs. Colby sent me. I was really a trifle afraid of them, so knowing Miss Asquith was very fond of them, I took them to her. The little meadow, button mushrooms I am quite willing to eat, but these monstrosities I really don't feel equal to.' But they are very good, I assured her. I shouldn't be afraid to eat them. 'Really?' said Miss Maria, 'then I am sorry I didn't meet you first.'
"We parted and I pursued my way to Miss Asquith's. I found her examining the gift which Miss Maria had just left. 'See these curious things,' she said. 'Of course I am not in the least afraid of mushrooms, particularly when I know these are fresh, but we happen to have something else for supper, and they should not be kept over. My dear Miss Elliott, won't you have them?' 'I'll take them gladly,' I said. 'You won't mention to Miss Maria that I didn't use them,' said Miss Asquith, and I promised. So here they are and they go no further. They stop in this house, for you and I, Gwen, are not afraid of them."
The girls laughed. "That is a story worth telling," said Gwen. "What funny things do happen up here. Do tell us something else, Aunt Cam. I know Miss Maria must have had some good tale. She has such a keen sense of humor."
"Miss Maria is inimitable," responded Miss Elliott. "She was funny when she was telling me her tribulations over getting certain things done. I wish you could have heard her on the subject of her lattice. 'Behold it,' she said, 'a brilliant green, caterpillar's blood I call it. My dear, it was intended to match the house. I saw it in my mind's eye a neutral gray with white trimmings. When I came down this morning, my maid told me the painter was at work. I was rejoiced, for I had been waiting weeks for him. I rushed out on the porch, and then I screamed, I actually screamed. "Abiel Toothacre," I said, "what do you mean by painting my lattice green? It was to have been gray to match the house." Abiel rose to his feet, scratched his head and looked at me in a dazed way. "I believe, Miss Maria," he drawled, "that Thad Eaton did say something about its being a sorter drab, but I went to Stork's and he was out of white paint altogether, and hadn't but a little wee mite of black. We looked over his stawk and there seemed to be more of this here green than anything else, so, as I heard you was in a hurry, I fetched it along. Nice lively green, Miss Maria. Looks real fresh and nice." In a hurry!' she gasped, 'and I had been waiting six weeks! Isn't it tragic? However I was so thankful it wasn't a magenta pink or a cerulean blue, that I didn't say a word.'"
Miss Elliott was not a bad imitator herself, and the girls saw the scene vividly. "I must stop and condole with her the next time I go that way," said Gwen. "We have troubles of our own, Ethel. Yesterday we had planned for lamb chops with potatoes and peas; our dinner turned out to be veal cutlets, lettuce and rice. There is really a charm in the uncertainty. It is absolutely exciting to surmise, and we both rush to the kitchen when the man brings the order, for it is so liable to be different from that we expected. Sometimes we don't get anything, and then we have to fall back on the box of supplies we had sent from Shaw's when we first came. Any more news, Aunt Cam?"
"No, I believe not. I saw Mr. Williams as I came by Cap'n Ben's. He reminds me of some one I have seen, and I cannot think who it is."