“Well,” sez I, “that is nothin’ but human man-nater; they will always find fault with their wives in preference to other wimmen; they’re built in jest that way, and mebby they can’t help it. I spoze mebby they think that they’re complimentin’ ’em, payin’ attention to ’em; men are so queer.”
And agin she looked real meanin’, and sez, “Well, folks talk a sight.”
And I sez agin, “They most generally do.”
Well, Fidelia Pogram wuz dretful glad to see me, and so wuz Elinor. Alcander, owin’ to the course of treatment he had had, acted some hauty, bein’ I wuz a woman—Fidelia’s fault, every mite on’t. Alcander wuz warm-hearted when he wuz married, and liked wimmen jest as well as he did men—and better, too, his wife bein’ a woman. Well, I see in a minute that Elinor looked bad, holler-eyed, pale, wan, and some stoopin’ in the shoulders (but of that more anon). Well, they hurried round and got a good supper. Fidelia is a splendid cook and duz all the cookin’, for Alcander likes her cookin’ better than he duz anybody else’s; and Fidelia, bein’ so anxious to please him, duz it all, every mite; and he thinks that Fidelia duz up his shirt bosoms better, and so she irons all the fine clothes; and Alcander finds a sight of fault if the house hain’t kep’ jest so; and, Minnie not bein’ a nateral housekeeper, Fidelia jest slaves round all the time, cleanin’ and pickin’ up, and looks fagged out and tired and worn all the time, and the hired girl pert and rosy; and Alcander paid her a compliment on her good looks, and wished right before me that Fidelia could look more like Minnie, and Minnie bridled up and looked tickled, and Fidelia’s head drooped like a droopin’ dove’s. And I don’t know when I have been madder, both as a friend and as a woman.
And I spoke right up, and sez, “Mebby if Minnie had been in the kitchen over a hot stove, and br’iled the steak and creamed the potatoes and made the coffee, and if Fidelia had been out on the piazza part of the time, mebby she would have looked more fresh.” I had seen Minnie there half of the time she wuz a-settin’ the table, a-leanin’ over the railin’, actin’ lazy and uppish.
“But,” sez Alcander coolly, “Fidelia prefers to do the cookin’.”
“Yes,” sez Fidelia faintly—for she wuz wore out—“yes, I prefer to.”
“Well,” sez I, “if you do, it is the least we can do, who enjoys your delicious supper, to be thankful to you, and sorry that you have wore yourself out for our enjoyment.” Fidelia’s cheeks flushed and her eyes brightened at the unusual thing of a word of praise bein’ gin to her; and the hired girl looked mad and black; and Alcander looked on with perfect wonder at the turn things had took, and spoke quite soft to Fidelia, and she brightened up still more.
Sez he, “Nobody can cook a steak equal to Fidelia.”
And my Josiah looked real tempersome, and as if he wuz a-goin’ in to combat for my rights as a stak’ist. But I spoke right up and sez: