The Irish standard., 1892-12-03
/ MARTHA.
By AUGUSTA HARMED.
q oDpyEight. l69e. BY American Press Assooia
toni

all how folks Will eat when Cney geC SET
down to loaded table. I'll buy the
chickens for salad, Ann, for know how
to make it extry well, with mayonazy
dressing, and guess l shall order ice
cream from Holden s. White, best Philar
delphy. We will have real loaf at one
end Of the table and the salad at the
other, and celery glass OF flowers II
the middle and smoked tongue and
picked oysters in between, and when
the cream comes on it will be a surprise"
'sYon can hev everything in the house,
everything if she consents, and what's
ext1y you can suit yourself about that"
Ann was wiping her lean, brown arms
on the roller towel preparatory to going
up to her mistress, and while she was
away Sister Martha counted the viands
on the fingers OF her two hands-pOund
cake and plum cake and angel cake and
jumbles, not less than four kinds. She
would make two pans of her feather
light biscuit and have hot gems besides.
Then for sauce, three kinds-plum and
ounce and crab apple jelly, and float
ing island into the bargain. The table
was all set out in her imagination before
Ann came dumping down stairs.
'<She says you may hev it and well
come" was the message, 'sand she told
me to bring out all Miss Mayhew's best
chany and to rub the silver and see to
the fine tablecloths and napkins. She
thought you'd want the two tables put
together just as they used to hev them
at mi,
givin, and she says you amt to buy
nothin as we hey store Of in the house.
didn't mention them extrys-ice cream
and chicking--for knew it would
worry her. She looked real pleased
when spoke about the tea; a futterin
red come into her cheek, and her eyes
were bright and she seemed trembly
and excited. guess she's got real hos
pitable feelias, as much as anybody
ever knowed. She'd hev been glad to
ask folks to The house all these years since
her mother died, only when she come to
plan about company she sunk right
down weak as water
Mrs. Whitcumb was paying but slight
attention to AIMS remarks, mumbled,
Too, as they were, in her throat, as she
put away the dishes on the pantry
shelves.
s'I'll tell you, Ann" she said, coming
cut of her calculations about floating
island and plum cake, "Pnl going to
send out cards us they do in cities-New
York and Boston and other big places:
Mrs Josiah Whitcumb, at home at the
Mayhem house, on Thursday. Tea at
six O'clock, in one corner, you know.
don't know rs they We got that style yet in
Littlefield. I shall mail the cards today,
and the tea party on Thursday will
come in handy. The washin and ironin
will be out Of the way, and sweepin not
till Friday. shall try not to do much
undertook, Ann; I'm q pretty good cake
and biscuit baker, and if you can man.
age to let me have the kitchen stove'-
Ann cut her short with a character
istic speech. II shall do all that COM
ports with my part Of the house, Mrs.
Whitcumb, and you can hev full swing"
Sister Martha loved the hustle Of prep
aration. She was now in her element as
she tied on her bonnet, and stepped
away down town to procure visiting
cards. She smiled visibly as she thought
of the ease with which the kitchen GER
berus had swallowed her sop. The re-
mainder of the day she occupied her
sister-in-law's deserted sitting room,
busy writing cards Of invitation. She
had made OUT list like any other fash
ionable lady who means to be very ex-
elusive and select. The cards were TO
be severely limited to those among be.
Littlefeld acquaintance who, i'll her
own phrase. ''had paid her attentions.
There were the minister and his wife.
On previous visit she had been asked
to sewing circle at the parsonage; and
Deacon Folsom and lady and the Stoves,
three maiden sisters, and Miss Hattie
Warren and her old bachelor brother.
At last she came to the name Of Bligh
on the list. She hardly knew why she
had put it there. A kind of dare devil
impulse, she surmised, had impelled her
to write it down. The captain was an
old acquaintance and near neighbor,
and why should she not ask him to her
tea? Yes; she would. He might swear
some when he got the invitation. She
thought she could see him glowering at
it before he chucked it into the fire.
The card was written and lay before
her; in the left hand lower corner, Tea
at six o'clock" in the opposite corner,
s.R. S. V. p Mrs. Whitcumb did not
know rightly what those magic letters
stood for, but she had seen them on
fashionable invitations and she was de-
termined to have the very latest
wrinkle" at her tea party. Slowly she
addressed the envelope, Captain George
Bigh." There were other Blighs in
Littlefeld, and she meant there should
be no mistake She sat and nibbled the
end Of her pen, conjuring up pleasant
i images Of the discontinue of the people
who would find themselves left out in
/ the cold. The Woods, who lived over
\ the way, and the fuckers, who lived
i next door, neither Of these families were
EEon the list; neither Of them had ever Of
Tered her the hospitality of SO much as a
family tea or q picked up dinner.
o40A