And Miss Scrimp, having hidden the letter, was pondering in perplexity over its meaning. She had been often exercised over the secrets of her boarders, but never so badly as now.
CHAPTER XI.
DETECTED.
Miss Scrimp was unusually cross that night at the supper table. There was less than the usual quantity of thin-sliced bread and butter on the table. The butter, ever scanty, was less by two plates, and the crackers altogether missing. When the boarders answered the cracked bell, and Hattie Butler took her usual seat close on her right, Miss Scrimp quite forgot to say, as she generally did, “good-evening, dear.”
Miss Scrimp was all out of sorts, and she evidently didn’t care who knew it—or, perhaps, meant they all should know it. One of the girls, Wild Kate, the rest called her, she was ever so odd, willful, and daring, happened to ask why the table was like a worn-out whip-lash, and as no one could respond to the conundrum, she gave the solution herself. She said there was no cracker on it.
“There’s no need of crackers when such snappish things are around as you are!” shrieked Miss Scrimp.
“This butter was made from milk that came from a very old cow. I’ve found three gray hairs in a very small piece, just enough to match the wafer-like thickness of this stale bread,” said Kate, never at a loss for a venomous reply when attacked by Miss Scrimp.
“Them that doesn’t like what I set before ’em can go farther and maybe fare worse,” snarled Miss Scrimp.
As half the girls were tittering over the points Kate had made, the latter was satisfied for the time, and Miss Scrimp’s last fling fell on heedless ears.
In a little time the table was literally cleared, for girls who have toiled all day, with but a slender, cold lunch for dinner, cannot but be hungry at night.
When the table was deserted poor Jessie looked in vain for a scrap for her supper. Miss Scrimp saw it, but she felt too cross and ugly to care, and so poor Jessie went without any supper, while Biddy Lanigan and her mistress, as usual, had their strong tea and extra dishes.