For the first time a shadow passed across the genial face of the plumber, though it vanished quickly.
“The curtains shall come, Mary wife, some time, if my strong arm can earn them. But we’ll not have any silly imitation laces at our windows. They’re shams, and a sham is a lie. Plain simple muslin, with as many frills and ruffles as you’ve the patience to keep starched and ironed—they’re honest and suitable to our station. Meanwhile, is there a prettier sight at anybody’s windows than the row of healthy, happy faces of our children? Look at that great house, across alley, with not a chick nor child in it. What do you suppose its mistress would give for such a batch of jolly little tackers as ours?” Then, reaching across the table corner to drop another hot cake upon the empty plate of the youngest Jay, he quoted, merrily: “‘This is my boy, I know by the building of him; bread and meat and pancakes right in the middle of him.’”
Of course, all the children laughed at the familiar jest, and each took heart to send up his own plate for another helping.
“They’ve had their allowance, John. There’s no use to make a rule and break it, dear.”
“No, Mary wife. Surely not. That is, in ordinary. But in a blizzard? Everything gets out of gear in a blizzard, even boys’ appetites. As many cakes as a child is years old is a safe rule to follow; but not on blizzard mornings, that come but seldom in a lifetime. Hark! Quiet! I hear a bell ringing somewhere. A dinner bell. It sounds like a summons.”
All fell perfectly silent for the space of a half-minute, maybe; then Molly burst forth with a thought she had been pondering:
“What a good thing it was that Miss Armacost had Sir Christopher buried last night, before this snow came! If she hadn’t I don’t know what she would have done. But—I believe that bell is from her house. It sounds out the back way, the alley side.”
There was a general stampede from the table, that was as promptly checked.
“Come back to your places, every youngster of you! Of course, it’s an exciting time, but manners to a body’s mother must never be forgotten.”