"Amanda," the other girl said effusively, "what a fine young man! Is he
your beau?"
"No. Certainly not! I have no beau. I've known Martin Landis ever since
I was born, almost. He lives down the road a piece. He's a nice chap."
"Splendid! Fine! Such eyes, such wonderfully expressive gray eyes I
have never seen. And he has such a strong face. Of course, his clothes
are a bit shabby. He'd be great if he fixed up."
"Yes," Amanda agreed mechanically. She was ill-pleased with the
dissection of her knight.
Mrs. Reist, with true rural, Pennsylvania Dutch hospitality, invited
Isabel to have supper with them, an invitation readily accepted. At the
close of the meal Isabel said suddenly to Mrs. Reist, "How would you
like to have me board with you for a few weeks--a month, probably?"
"Why, I don't know. All right, I guess, if Millie, here, don't think it
makes too much work. Poor Millie's got the worst of all the work to do.
I ain't so strong, and there's much always to do. Of course, Amanda
helps, but none of us do as much as Millie."
"But me, don't I get paid for it, and paid good?" asked the hired girl,
sending a loving glance at Mrs. Reist. "Far as I go it's all right to
have Isabel come for a while. Mebbe she can help, too, sometimes with
the work."
"I wouldn't be much help, I'm afraid. I never peeled a potato in my
life."
Millie looked at the girl with slightly concealed disfavor. "Why,
that's a funny way, now, to bring up a girl! I guess it's time you
learn such things once! You dare come, and I'll show you how to do a
little work. But why do you want to board when your folks live just in
Lancaster?"
"Father and Mother are going to the Elks' Convention and to California.
They expect to be gone about a month. I was going to stay in Lancaster
with my aunt, but I just thought how much nicer it would be to spend
that time in the country."
"Well, I guess, too!" Millie was quick to understand how one would
naturally prefer the country to the city.
So it was settled that Isabel Souders was to spend June at the Reist
farmhouse. Everybody concerned appeared well pleased with the
arrangement. But Amanda's heart hurt. "Why did I take her for those
moccasins?" she thought drearily after Isabel had gone back to the city
with her precious flowers. "I know Martin will fall in love with her
and she with him. Oh, I'm a mean, detestable thing! But I wish she'd go
to the coast with her parents!"