Bettie saw with tenderness how devotedly poor Ed served Maud. He could not have taken a better method of heaping coals of fire on her head.
Ed was entirely unconscious of her softening, however, for he could not look around from where he sat. He heard her laughing and believed she was happy. He had not taken poor Maud for the purpose of showing his penitence, for he had no such feeling in his heart; he was, on the contrary, rather gloomy and reckless. He was not in a mood to show a front of indifference.
The oysters steamed; the heels of the boys' boots thumped in wild delight; the women bustled about; the girls giggled, and the men roared with laughter. Everybody ate as if he and she had never tasted oyster-soup and chicken before, and the cakes and pies went the way of the oyster-soup like corn before a troup of winter turkeys.
Bill Yohe, by way of a joke, put some frosting down the back of Cy Hurd, and, by way of delicate attention to Ella, alternately shoved her out of the seat and pulled her back again, while Joe hurled a chicken-leg at Cad Hines as she stood in the entry-way. Will Kinney told Sary Hines for the fourth time how his team had run away, interrupted by his fear that some kind of pie would get away untasted.
"An' so I laid the lines down—H'yare! Gimme another handful of crackers, Merry—an' I laid the lines down while I went t' fine—nary a noyster I can hold any more. Mrs. Moss, I'm ready f'r pie now—an' so I noticed ole Frank's eye kind o' roll, but thinksi, I c'n git holt o' the lines if he—Yes'm, I alwiss eat mince; won't you try some, Sary?—an'—an'—so, jest as I gut my ax—You bet! I'm goin' t' try a piece of every kind if it busts my stummick. Gutta git my money's worth."
Milton was in his best mood and was very attractive in his mirth. His fine teeth shone and his yellow curls shook under the stress of his laughter. He wrestled with Bettie for the choice bits of cake, delighting in the touch of her firm, sweet flesh; and, as for Bettie, she was almost charmed to oblivion of Ed by the superior attractions of Milton's town-bred gallantry. Ed looked singularly awkward and lonesome as he sat sprawled out in one of the low seats, and curiously enough his uncouthness and disconsolateness of attitude won her heart back again.
Everybody, with the usual rustic freedom, had remarks to make upon the situation.
"Wal, Bettie, made a swop, hev yeh?" said Councill.
"Hello, Milt; thought you had a girl down town."
"Oh, I keep one at each end of the line," Milton replied, with his ready laugh.