And, best view of all to my fond heart, my companion stood in the open barn door in his shirt sleeves feedin’ the hens, and his face looked calm and reposeful as the seen. Tirzah and Delight got there a little the first, and as I lifted the sweet little creeter out it did seem, though I knew it couldn’t be, that she wuz prettier than she wuz the last time I had seen her. But my cool reason told me how could that be, when she wuz jest as pretty as she could be on that occasion. She’s got big, kinder talkin’ eyes, a warm soft hazel, I guess they be, but they are so full of light and soul and expression that you don’t care so much what the color really is, a fair, white complexion, wavy, flaxen hair, good features, and the sweetest mouth you ever see with most always a smile curvin’ the rosy lips, and a pretty plump little figger most always dressed in white.
When she see me she held out her little soft white hands and arms, and I lifted her out, kissin’ her warmly as I did so; I then greeted Tirzah Ann warmly, a good deal more warm than Ma-in-laws usually greet their stepchildren, but, good land! I have always considered her my own, jest as much as she wuz Josiah’s, though not so soul congenial to me as Thomas J., she has her properties.
Well, they hadn’t much more than alighted when Tamer Ann and Jack come. I wuz real glad to see ’em all, and, after they had took off their things, I got ’em into the settin’ room, and went out and made a few more preparations for dinner, though I had a good dinner started. I had a stuffed fowl and some green peas on, and wuz intendin’ to have some tomatoes cooked, and some fresh, crisp rolls and a good lemon puddin’, besides coffee and cream and jell and things, but I put on a different tablecloth and got out my pink banded china.
I could hear Tamer and Tirzah talkin’ real agreeable together while I wuz gittin’ my dinner. They wuz comparin’ notes about their sicknesses, Tirzah Ann enjoys real poor health, too, some of the time. And then they seemed to be comparin’ notes about their children, and the right way to bring ’em up, and I felt bad to see that Tamer Ann and Tirzah felt so much alike in a good many things about their children. But I wuz so busy I couldn’t interfere and take part in their talk until after dinner. Truly, when a man is splittin’ wood in the rear of the house, complainin’ of faintness at the stummick and anxiously watchin’ the clock and mistrustin’ it wuz slow, and wishin’ he had sot it with the gong, etc., etc., it behooves a woman to have dinner on time, if she loves tranquillity and domestic peace.
And after dinner wuz over and my dishes washed, I washin’ and Tirzah Ann wipin’, and we three wimmen wuz settin’ with our sewin’ and knittin’, the children bein’ out in the yard to play, then when the conversation gradually turned round onto bringin’ up children and its perils and perplexities, I put in my oar, too, and took a part in the meetin’ as you may say. Tirzah had had a hard time the Sunday before, she had taken little Delight to church and had a trial with her that made her feel dretfully, and she wuz jest beginnin’ to tell about it when she wuz interrupted by the children talkin’ right under the winder; they wuz talkin’ so earnest about sunthin’ we all stopped to listen.
Jack wuz speakin’ excited and interested, sez he, “Don’t you see, Delight, that long, low cloud that is layin’ right aginst that tree top? I believe if we should climb up that tree we could step right off into Heaven, and I wonder if the Lord would be glad to see us if we should walk in.”
“Of course He would,” sez Delight. “He would come to the door and take us right up in His arms and say, ‘I am glad to see you. Suffer little children to come unto me,’ that is what Mama told me He said about children, and I learnt it.”
But at this juncter Tirzah Ann rushed to the winder and hollered to Delight and told her to stop instantly, and Tamer Ann follered right on and told Jack to not let her hear any more such talk. And the children crep off into another part of the dooryard, lookin’ crestfallen and wonderin’ what they had said now that wuz wrong. And, after they wuz out of hearin’, I sez, “Why did you tell your children you would punish ’em for sayin’ what they did?”
Sez Tamer, “I won’t have Jack show irreverence, and I’ll whip him if he duz.” And Tirzah Ann sez, “I will not allow Delight to talk in that way.”