"But it's a lively, merry place. I always like to come here."
"Do you, now? Well, I like to have you. I often say to Martin that
you're like a streak of sunshine comin' on a winter day, always so
happy and full of fun, it does abody good to have you around. Ach"--in
answer to a whisper from the six-year-old baby, "yes, well, go take a
few cookies. Only put the lid on the crock tight again so the cookies
will keep fresh. Now I guess I better look after my short cake once.
Mister likes everything baked brown. Then I guess we'll set the table
if you don't mind tellin' me a little how."
"I'll be glad to."
While Mrs. Landis went up-stairs to get her very best table-cloth
Amanda looked about the room with its plain country furnishings, its
hominess and yet utter lack of real artistry in decoration. Her heart
rebelled. What business had a girl like Isabel Souders to enter a
family like the Landis's? She'd like to bet that the city girl would
disdain the dining-room with its haircloth sofa along one wall and its
organ in one corner, its quaint, silk-draped mantel where two vases of
Pampas grass hobnobbed with an antique pink and white teapot and two
pewter plates; its lack of buffet or fashionable china closet, its old,
low-backed, cane-seated walnut chairs round a table, long of necessity
to hold plates for so large a family.
"Here it is, the finest one I got. That's one I got yet when I went
housekeepin'. I don't use it often, it's a little long for the kitchen
table." Mrs. Landis proudly exhibited her old linen table-cloth. "Now
then, take hold."
In a few minutes the cloth was spread upon the table and the best
dishes brought from a closet built into the kitchen wall.
"How many plates?" asked Amanda.
"Why, let's count once. Eleven of us and Isabel makes twelve and--won't
you stay, too, Amanda?"
"Oh, no! I'd make thirteen," she said, laughing.
"Ach, I don't believe in that unlucky business. You can just as well
stay and have a good time with us. You know Isabel."
"Yes, I know her. But really, I can't stay. I must get home early. Some
other time I'll stay."
"All right, then, but I'd like it if you could be here."
"I'll put twelve plates on the table."
"What I don't know about is the napkins, Amanda. We used to roll them
up and put them in the tumblers and then some people folded them in
triangles and laid them on the plates, but I don't know if that's right
now. Mine are just folded square."
"That's right. I'll place them to the side, so. And the forks go here
and the knives and spoons to this side."