Amanda: A Daughter of the Mennonites - Page 32/147

"Na-ha," exulted Amanda, with impish delight. "That's one on you. Aunt

Rebecca ain't so dumb like she lets on sometimes."

"Ach, no," Aunt Rebecca said, laughing. "'A blind pig sometimes finds

an acorn, too.'"

Aunt Rebecca's table, though not lavishly laden as are those of most of

the Pennsylvania Dutch, was amply filled with good, substantial food.

The fried sausage was browned just right, the potatoes and lima beans

well-cooked, the cold slaw, with its dash of red peppers, was tasty and

the snitz pie--Uncle Amos's favorite--was thick with cinnamon, its

crust flaky and brown.

After the dishes were washed Aunt Rebecca said, "Now then, we'll go in

the parlor."

"Oh, in the parlor!" exclaimed Amanda. "Why, abody'd think we was

company. You don't often take us in the parlor."

"Ach, well, you won't make no dirt and I just thought to-day, once, I'd

take you in the parlor to sit a while. It don't get used hardly. Wait

till I open the shutters."

She led the way through a little hall to the front room. As she opened

the door a musty odor came to the hall.

"It smells close," said Aunt Rebecca, sniffing. "But it'll be all right

till I get some screens in." She pulled the tasseled cords of the green

shades, opened the slatted shutters, and a flood of summer light

entered the room. "Ach," she said impatiently as she hammered at one

window, "I can hardly get this one open still, it sticks itself so."

But after repeated thumps on the frame she succeeded in raising it and

placing an old-fashioned sliding screen.

"Now sit down and take it good," she invited.

Uncle Amos sank into an old-fashioned rocker with high back and curved

arms, built throughout for the solid comfort of its occupants. Mrs.

Reist chose an old hickory Windsor chair, Aunt Rebecca selected, with a

sigh of relief, a fancy reed rocker, given in exchange for a book of

trading stamps.

"This here's the best chair in the house and it didn't cost a cent,"

she announced as she rocked in it.

Amanda roamed around the room. "I ain't been in here for long. I want

to look around a little. I like these dishes. I wish we had some like

them." She tiptoed before a corner cupboard filled with antiques.

"Ach, yes," her aunt answered, "mebbe it looks funny, ain't, to have a

glass cupboard in the parlor, but I had no other room for it, the house

is so little. If I didn't think so much of them dishes I'd sold them

a'ready. That little glass with the rim round the bottom of it I used

to drink out of it at my granny's house when I was little. Them dark

shiny dishes like copper were Jonas's mom's. And I like to keep the

pewter, too, for abody can't buy it these days."