“She is an excellent cook.”
“Mother Amy! What has that to do with it?”
“More than thee thinks. Thee worries over the children’s minds and morals, and that is well enough in a way, but if their bodies are healthy and sound, they may be safely trusted to do pretty nearly right. They come of good stock.”
Ruth was speechless with amused surprise. Such words seemed like heresy on the lips of the saintly Amy; but they had the effect of checking her own anxiety and of assuring her that her mother was not so dangerously ill as she had feared.
“I suppose we can trust Content to keep things straight, under Rosetta,” said Ruth, so merrily that her mother’s heart lightened. If Ruth had been worrying about her, she had also been worrying about Ruth; and, when matters reach this stage between two people, it is time that somebody else stepped in and set them at ease. Good Doctor Winslow had done so by his pleasant prescription; and, already, in less than five minutes after he had given it, its beneficent effects were evident. The sea-shore trip had become a matter-of-course; what was the house to worry about, more than a house? And as for the children, how could they go far astray in that peaceful abode?
“Content shall have her share of the task; but Paula is the elder. Paula must be prime minister,” said Grandmother Kinsolving.
“Paula, mother? Paula is no more fit to be set over the others than—than I am!”
“It will make a vast difference to the girl whether she is put in authority or whether she assumes it. Paula will do right; thee may depend upon it.”
“Mother Amy, thee is either a very foolish or a very wise woman.”
“Daughter Ruth, I have lived long. The years should teach me something.”