“Seventeen!” exclaimed Mrs. Quimby. “Laws’ sake, I was married when I was sixteen, and I quilted as good then as I do now. I’m over eighty now, and I’d ruther quilt than do anything, ’most. You don’t look to be seventeen.”
“And you don’t look to be eighty, either,” said Patty, smiling, glad to be able to turn the subject by complimenting the old lady.
The quilting lasted all the afternoon. Patty grew very tired of the unaccustomed work, and was glad when Miss Bender noticed it, and told her to run out into the garden with Bertha. Bertha was not allowed to touch the quilt with her incompetent fingers, but Elise sewed away, thoroughly enjoying it all, and with no desire to avail herself of Miss Bender’s permission to stop and rest. Patty and Bertha wandered through the old-fashioned garden, in great delight. The paths were bordered with tiny box hedges, which, though many years old, were kept clean and free from deadwood or blemish of any sort, and were perfectly trimmed in shape.
The garden included quaint old flowers such as marigolds, sweet Williams, bleeding hearts, bachelors’ buttons, Jacob’s ladder and many others of which Patty did not even know the names. Tall hollyhocks, both single and double, grew against the wall, and a hop vine hung in green profusion.
Every flower bed was of exact shape, and looked as if not a leaf or a stem would dare to grow otherwise than straight and true.
“What a lovely old garden,” said Patty, sniffing at a sprig of lemon verbena which she had picked.
“Yes, it’s wonderful,” said Bertha. “I mean to ask Miss Bender if I mayn’t bring my camera over, and get a picture of it, and if they’re good, I’ll give you one.”
“Do,” said Patty, “and take some pictures inside the house too. I’d like to show them to Nan.”
“Tell me about Nan,” said Bertha. “She’s your stepmother, isn’t she?”
“Yes,” said Patty, “but she’s only six years older than I am, so that the stepmother part of it seems ridiculous. We’re more like sisters, and she’s perfectly crazy over old china and old furniture. She’d love Miss Bender’s things.”