“No, Mrs. Bruce, I do not. I wish you’d let Chloe bear her share of the work, not do so much yourself. I want you to rest—as I’m doing,” answered the other.
“It plumb wears me out to have folks fussin’ so, Ma’am. They ain’t no use. A day’s only a day, when all’s said and done. Why not take it easy? Take it as easy as you can and it don’t amount to much, life don’t. Ah! hum.”
But the Colonel’s protest was lost on energetic Mrs. Bruce. She tossed her comely head and retorted:
“Some folks find their rest in doin’ their duty, not in loafin’ round on other people’s time and things. Not meaning any disrespect, I’m sure, but I never did have time to do nothin’ in. I’m going right now and set to work on that dinner. I do wish the girls could see those baskets, first, though!”
“Leave them untouched, then, Mrs. Bruce. Surely, we had enough provided before we had this present.”
“Yes, Mrs. Calvert, we did have—for our own folks; and counting a little on the fish the men-folks was to bring in. Seems if they’s gone a dreadful spell, don’t it? And I heard that old Cap’n Jack say something about the Bay. If he’s enticed ’em to row out onto that big water—Oh! dear! I wish they’d come!”
The Colonel roused himself to remark:
“Squalls is right frequent on the Chesapeake. And that old man is no captain at all. Used to work on an oyster boat and don’t know—shucks. Likely they’ve had an upset. Boys got to foolin’ and—Ah! hum! Wasn’t none of ’em your sons, were they, Ma’am?”
From the moment of their first meeting there had been a silent battle between the capable housekeeper and the incapable “southern gentleman.” She had had several talks with Dorothy and Jim over the finances of this trip and she knew that it would have to be a short one if “ends were to meet.” She felt that this man, aristocrat though he might be, had no right to impose himself and his prodigious appetite upon them just because the lads had tried to buy his old mule and he had, instead, so generously presented it.