"Oh, if you all like to be crowded," said the old lady, meeting Polly's brown eyes, "why, I am sure I don't care." So, the butler bringing a small chair, Pip crowded in next to Ben, and everything was merry once more.
And the young minister proved to be quite nice, and Madam Van Ruypen fairly beamed at him as the feast went on. And Pickering Dodge and he struck up quite a friendship across the table, and even made plans for a skating match on the morrow.
"Now tell me," at last said the old lady, when the talk ran a bit low, "what can I do with the boys? And that girl—" she glanced to the end of the room, where Elvira, despite her disappointment at not being at Joel's table, was comforting herself as best she might by giving undivided attention to a chicken wing, which she held in both fingers.
"You better send them to school," said Mr. St. John, quickly. "And just as soon as you can get them there."
"Will the mother allow it?" asked the old lady, brightening up.
"Will she allow it? My dear madam," the minister straightened up and forgot how afraid of her he was, when she sat, a formidable figure in the little mountain church of a summer Sunday, and how very much he had disliked her, albeit her generous contributions whenever the plate went around—and now he smiled broadly, "if you could only have seen her when that box—"
"Never mind that," said Madam Van Ruypen, abruptly, and waving her hand with authority. "The question is, Will she allow me to send these children to school?"
"I think there's no doubt about it," said Mr. St. John, determined to find his own way to tell the story as he wanted it to appear. "Well, as I was saying, that cabin—why, we didn't any of us know what that poor woman was suffering. I blame myself," his head dropped and he drummed on the table with his fingers.
"Nonsense!" exclaimed the old lady, "you're not to blame." Then she added, with a remembrance of the summers spent in the mountain nook, "I'm sure I should have known."
"My dear madam," exclaimed the young minister, very much shocked to think that in the face of all her generosity he should have thrust a question for reproach, "you have been so very good, and have saved them all."