"She has one girl an' one boy—an' that there boy! She'd dress him up in a new white get-up, 'bout every five minutes, an' he'd walk straight outside an' wallow in the mud right after. I thought I'd a' had to stand an' iron pants for that young heathen till the crack o' doom, an' I had just one pair too many so I had. An' I up an' told her you'd think she kep' a young centipede much less a human boy with only two legs to him. And then I up and skedaddled."
Miss Gordon's conscience added its protest to that of her dignity, and she spoke.
"I prefer that you should not discuss your various mistresses with me, Sarah Emily. I can have nothing to do with your affairs now, you see."
Sarah Emily lilted the refrain of her song:
"Timmy—eigh timmy—um, timmy—tum—tum—tum,
Of all false young men to beware!
"Would you like muffins or pancakes for supper?" she finished up graciously.
Miss Gordon hesitated. Sarah Emily was a great trial to genteel nerves, but she was undeniably a great relief from much toilsome labor that was quite incompatible with a genteel life. Sarah Emily noticed her hesitation and went on:
"When Mrs. Jarvis came she had me make muffins every morning for breakfast."
Miss Gordon dropped her knitting, completely off her guard.
"Why, Sarah Emily!" she cried, "you don't mean—not Elizabeth's Mrs. Jarvis."