and sorry that you have wore yourself out for our enjoyment." Fidelia's cheeks flushed and her eyes brightened at the unusual thing of a word of praise bein' gin to her; and the hired girl looked mad and black; and Alcander looked on with perfect wonder at the turn things had took, and spoke quite soft to Fidelia, and she brightened up still more.
Sez he, "Nobody can cook a steak equal to Fidelia."
And my Josiah looked real tempersome, and as if he wuz a-goin' in to combat for my rights as a stak'ist. But I spoke right up and sez:
"That is so, Alcander. Fidelia is one of the most splendid cooks in the county, and you must be proud of her, and do all you can to make her rest and recreate between meals, jest out of gratitude to the one that furnishes such delicious food."
He looked kinder cheap; and Fidelia looked troubled, for she mistrusted that there wuz a shadder of blame bein' cast onto Alcander; but I changed the subject, like a good mistress of ticktacks.
"I spoze, Elinor, you have read the last great book of?" and I named a book very upliftin', and beloved by young wimmen.
"No," she said; she hadn't much time for readin', she wuz so busy makin' Christmas gifts.
Sez Fidelia, proudly, "Elinor has hem-stitched twenty-two fine linen han'kerchiefs for the aunts and cousins on both sides, and made home-made lace to trim them with out of one-hundred-and-twenty thread."
And I sez, "I don't know that there wuz any thread so fine."
"Yes," sez Fidelia; "it looks like a cobweb; and out of that same thread she has made twenty yards of that
