“Betty said, ‘It is a dredging-box, you little chatterbox;’ and then the red-faced coachman, who was toasting his toes in the chimney-corner, laughed, and said, ‘Come here, sis!’
“I did not go. I did not like to be laughed at, and I was not his sis; but still I kept smelling things through the door-crack, because I had nothing else to do, and because I liked the good smell. I saw Betty take out three pies to warm; one, she said, was mince, and I thought when I got a piece how I would pick out all the nice raisins and eat them; the other was pumpkin, and the other was an apple pie; then there was a large chicken pie, and a cold boiled ham, and some oysters; I knew my mother brought the ham and oysters from the city, because I heard her talking about it at home; and then I wondered if folks who went to eat dinner with ministers had always to bring a part of their dinners. Then Betty came in to set the table for dinner; I was afraid she would not put on a plate for me, and that I should have to wait in the corner till the big folks had eaten up all the good things; but she did, and set up a little high chair with arms, that the minister’s boy used to sit in when he was little. I told Betty I did not like the minister’s boy’s chair, and that I wouldn’t sit in it; and then Betty said, ‘Sho, sho—little girls must be seen and not heard.’ I asked Betty what that meant, and then she and the red-faced coachman laughed again, and the coachman said, ‘Sis, it is fun talking to you.’ Then I heard a great noise in the entry, such a stamping of feet, and such a blowing of noses; sure enough meeting was done; I was so glad, for I knew the turkey was.
“Then the minister said, ‘Come to me, little one.’”
“Oh, mother! I am so sorry; I suppose he wanted you to say your catechism, when you were so hungry; did you go?”
“I stood with my finger in my mouth, looking him in the face, and thinking about it. I liked his face; it was not cross, and there was a pleasant smile about his mouth, and a soft sweet look in his eyes; so I went slowly up to him. I was glad he did not call me ‘sis,’ like the coachman; I did not like to be called sis; I wanted people to be polite to me, just as they were to my mother.”
“What did he say to you, mother? Did he make you say the catechism?”
“No; he pushed my curls back off my face, and kissed my forehead; then he asked me if I liked to hear little stories?”
“Did he? Why, what a nice minister!”
“I said, ‘Yes; do you know any? I know some.’
“Then the minister asked me what I knew.