“But she is just the same as a mother to those boys and to Sally,” observed Jessie.
“And to the doctor, too,” laughed Amy suddenly. “I’ll say Nell rules the whole parsonage.”
“She is a very capable girl.”
“True. But she can’t get very far ahead of Doctor Stanley. He is the funniest man, Jess! It is so nice to have a pastor with a sense of humor, isn’t it?”
“Momsy says that the sense of humor is something that all clergymen must have. They have so much to contend with.”
“And I’ll say Doctor Stanley has it big,” said Amy, nodding. “I was there the other day to take a book back to the doctor that papa had borrowed, and while I was in the study Nell was discussing household mechanics with her father.”
“Household mechanics?”
“It takes a good mechanic, Nell says, to make both ends meet on the doctor’s salary. And this time it was Bob’s birthday that came to the fore. What should they have for dinner that would be a treat, you know. Said the doctor:
“‘Bob’s birthday? You don’t say so, Nellie. How that boy is getting on! But what about it?’
“‘Nothing much, Reverend,’ Nell said, ‘only I thought we ought to kill those two Rhode Island Red chickens.’