“I can imagine it,” said one of his sons in a curiously tender voice. The other one smiled, and said whimsically, “I can hardly wait for mine!” Yet even as he spoke his eyes grew dim with a sudden moisture.
Back at the house John’s mother was saying to John’s wife: “Did you see them on him, Margaret?--John’s wristers? They did look so bright and pretty! And I’m to make more, too; did you know? Frank and Edward want some; John said so. He told them about his, and they wanted some right away. Only think, Margaret,” she finished, lifting with both hands the ball of red worsted and pressing it close to her cheek, “I’ve got two whole pairs to make now!”
The Giving Thanks of Cyrus and Huldah
For two months Cyrus Gregg and his wife Huldah had not spoken to each other, yet all the while they had lived under the same roof, driven to church side by side, and attended various festivities and church prayer-meetings together.
The cause of the quarrel had been an insignificant something that speedily lost itself in the torrent of angry words that burst from the lips of the irate husband and wife, until by night it would have been difficult for either the man or the woman to tell exactly what had been the first point of difference. By that time, however, the quarrel had assumed such proportions that it loomed in their lives larger than anything else; and each had vowed never to speak to the other until that other had made the advance.
On both sides they came of a stubborn race, and from the first it was a battle royally fought. The night of the quarrel Cyrus betook himself in solitary state to the “spare-room” over the parlor. After that he slept on a makeshift bed that he had prepared for himself in the shed-chamber, hitherto sacred to trunks, dried corn, and cobwebs.
For a month the two sat opposite to each other and partook of Huldah’s excellent cooking; then one day the woman found at her plate a piece--of brown paper on which had been scrawled:
If I ain’t worth speakin’ to I ain’t worth cookin’ for. Hereafter I’ll take care of myself.
A day later came the retort. Cyrus found it tucked under the shed-chamber door.
Huldah’s note showed her “schooling.” It was well written, carefully spelled, and enclosed in a square white envelope.