"That cuts you out, Wiggins," the Squire said playfully.
"No, I don't care about standing father to Seth's bitters," "Doc"
Wiggins remarked, "but I've tasted worse stuff on a cold night."
"Oh, Seth ain't pertickler about the temperature, when he takes a dose
of bitters. Hot or cold, it's all the same to him," finished Marthy.
Seth took the opportunity to whisper to her: "You're going to sit next
to me in 'Doc' Wiggins' sleigh to-night, ain't you, Marthy?"
"Indeed I ain't," said the spinster, scornfully tossing her head, "my
place will have to be filled by the bitters-bottle; I am going with the
Squire and Mrs. Bartlett."
"Doc" Wiggins' party left in high good humor, the Squire and his party
promising to follow immediately. Anna ran upstairs to get Mrs.
Bartlett's bonnet and cloak, and Marthy, with a great air of mystery,
got up, and, carefully closing the door after the girl, turned to the
Squire and his wife with: "I've come to tell you something about her."
"Something about Anna?" said the Squire indignantly.
"Oh, no, not about our Anna," protested Mrs. Bartlett: "Why, she is the
best kind of a girl; we are all devoted to her."
"That's just the saddest part of it, I says to myself when I heard.
How can I ever make up my mind to tell them pore, dear Bartletts, who
took her in, and has been treating her like one of their own family
ever since? It will come hard on, them, I sez, but that ought not to
deter me from my duty."
"Look here, Marthy," thundered the Squire, "if you've got anything to
say about that girl, out with it----"
"Well, land sake--you needn't be so touchy; she ain't kin to you, and
you might thank your lucky stars she ain't."
"Well, what is it, Marthy?" interposed Mrs. Bartlett. "Anna'll be down
in a minute."
"Well, you know, I have been sewin' down to Warren Center this last
week, and Maria Thomson, from Belden, was visiting there, and naturally
we all got to talking 'bout folks up this way, and that girl Anna
Moore's name was mentioned, and I'm blest if Maria Thomson didn't
recognize her from my description.
"I was telling them 'bout the way she came here last June, pale as a
ghost, and how she said her mother had just died and she'd been sick,
and they knew right off who she was."