When Betty asked if it was in a church “like this” that Mrs. Pitt’s father preached, and if her former home resembled the particular rectory they then chanced to be passing, Mrs. Pitt replied, “Yes, my home was somewhat like this one. All English country churches and rectories look very much alike,—that is, almost all are vine-covered, and very old and quaint—yet, I think each has its own very distinct individuality, too.”
Mrs. Pitt, of course, wanted some tea, so about four o’clock they stopped at a clean little cottage, near a stretch of woodland. Mrs. Pitt herself dismounted and stepped up to the door, which stood hospitably open. A little flaxen-haired child ran out curiously at the sound of the knock, and then, frightened, scampered away to call her mother. That good woman, in her neat black dress and stiffly-starched white apron, at once understood the situation.
“You just seat yourselves there under the trees,” she ordered them, “and I’ll bring right out a shive off a loaf of bread, and a tot o’ tea for each of you.”
The young people looked puzzled at this speech, but Mrs. Pitt smilingly led the way to the place their hostess designated. In a surprisingly short time the woman brought out a table (having scorned the assistance of the two boys), spread it with an immaculately clean cloth, and set thereon a very tempting loaf of brown bread and a pot of steaming tea. There was also jam, of course. While they enjoyed their meal, she stood by, her hands on her hips, and a radiant smile upon her face at the praises of her guests. Every few moments the little girl would peep out from behind the cottage, and once she almost came up to the group under the trees; but her mother, when she spied her, sent her hastily back, saying by way of an apology:—“She’s all swatched, but she’s only my reckling, you must know.” As they rode away into the woods, the good woman stood in the middle of the road waving her table-cloth for good-by.
“Wasn’t she a dandy!” John burst out. “Couldn’t understand what she said, though! Might just as well have been Greek!”
“She certainly did have some old Warwickshire expressions!” laughed Mrs. Pitt. “I don’t know when I’ve heard that word ‘reckling.’ It simply means her youngest child, who she said was all ‘swatched.’ That signifies being untidy, but I am sure I couldn’t see the tiniest spot of dirt anywhere upon the child.”
Betty was rather glad when they at last jumped off their bicycles at the hotel in Leamington.
“I guess I’m not used to quite such long rides as you,” she said. “It has been beautiful, though, and I wouldn’t have come by train for anything. I just love Warwickshire, and everything about it, especially the language, which I mean to learn while I am here.”