A House Party with the Tucker Twins. Speed Nell
begins to get thick and then put in the cheese and salt and bake it in a well-greased pan. It is dandy eating."
"Well now, doesn't that sound nice? Give me a pound of the cheese and one of those new pans to bake it in. My pans are all pretty nigh burnt out."
"Did you ever try any of this glassware for baking? It is so nice and clean and the crust looks so pretty showing through. To be sure it is more expensive than tin, but it is so satisfactory."
"I never heard of such a thing! Show it to me."
I had noticed with some surprise that Mr. Pore had a supply of the fire-proof glass just coming into general use. He was certainly a progressive buyer for one who was such a poor salesman. I sold her two glass baking dishes and then more dry-goods. It took three trips for us to carry out all her packages to the buggy. More purchasers had arrived in the meantime. I foresaw a busy time.
A little colored girl with three eggs tied up in a rag wanted to trade them for flour.
"My maw is makin' a cake fur the barsket fun'ral an' she ain't got a Gawd's mouth er flour in the house. She say if'n she can trade these here fur some flour she'll be jes' a-kitin'."
"Whar you git them aigs?" asked an old uncle suspiciously. I had just sold him a plug of "eatin' terbaccer."
"I git 'em out'n the nesses, whar they b'long," she asserted, tossing her wrapped plaits scornfully.
"Yer ain't got but one hen an' I done see yo' maw a-wringing her naick this ve'y mawnin'."
"What'n if'n yer did? That ole blue hen been layin' two three times er day lately, an' my maw she says she mus' about laid out by this time, so she up'n kilt her fer the barsket fun'ral goin' on at de same time of de big meetin'. But laws a mussy! Do you know she was that full er aigs that it war distressful?" The child's eyes were wistful at the remembrance.
"Well, well! Nobody can't tell 'bout women an' hens. It seems lak nobody don't speak up an' testify how much good they is in some sisters 'til they is dead an' gone. Same way with hens! Same way with hens! Is yo' maw gwinter bile it or bake it?"
"Sh'ain't 'cided. If'n yer bile it yer gits soup extry an' if'n yer bake it yer gits stuffin' an' graby."
I was thankful for the little training I had in mathematics when it was up to me to convert eggs into flour. Some problem! I put in a little extra flour to make sure and the child skipped off.
At this juncture the Tucker twins, Mary Flannagan, and a troop of young men from Maxton blew in. I was secretly relieved that Miss Wilcox was not of the party. Not that I minded her seeing me keep store, but I had a feeling she might be a little scornful of Annie Pore.
"Where is Annie?" cried Dum.
"We are nearly dead to see her," declared Dee.
"Gone driving with Sleepy. I am keeping store in her absence. His Lord High Muck-a-Muck has embarked for Richmond."
"What fun! What fun! We bid to help!"
"Maybe only one had better help, as purchasers coming in might be overcome by too many clerks," I laughed.
"You are right! Dee must be the one because she is so tactful," said Dum magnanimously.
So Dee took off her hat and got behind the candy and ginger ale side of the counter, and then such a buying and selling ensued as that country store had never witnessed.
Of course everybody treated everybody else and then had to be treated in turn. I stayed on the dry-goods side, and while I was not doing such a thriving business as Dee, still I had my hands full. The farmer's wife had met some acquaintances and sent them to Pore's to see the new clerk who could tell them so much about Richmond styles. I had to draw a gallon of kerosene for one customer, but Wink insisted upon doing this for me. I did not want him to one little bit. If I was to be storekeeper, I preferred being one, not just playing at it.
"I think you are wonderful, Page, to do this for Annie," he whispered to me as we made our way to the coal oil barrel.
"Nonsense! What is wonderful about it?"
"You are always kind to everybody but me."
"Do you want me to keep store for you?"
"No, I want you to keep house for me," he muttered.
"But I did not know you had a house," I teased.
He pumped vigorously at the coal oil.
"I intend to have one some day."
"A grand one, surely, if you expect to have a housekeeper!"
"Page, you know what I mean!" He looked longingly into my eyes that I knew were full of mischievous twinkles.
"All I know is, you have wasted about a quart of kerosene."
The floor was flooded. It is a difficult thing to pump coal oil and make love at the same time. Poor Wink had done both of his jobs badly. He looked aghast at the havoc he had caused.
"I am a bungling fool!" he cried.
"No, Wink, you are not that. You are just not an adept at – pumping coal oil."
"Why are you always different with me? You don't treat other fellows the way you do me."
"You don't treat other girls the way you do me," I retorted.
"Of course not! I don't feel towards them as I do towards you."
"Well, it is a good thing your feelings don't make you grouchy with everybody. You just exude gloom as soon as you get with me. But this isn't keeping shop for Annie," and I grabbed the oil can from him and ran back into the store.
I was very glad to see Wink make his way to Dee. He usually went to her after a bout with me. They were great friends and seemed to have a million things of interest to discuss and nothing to disagree about. I could have been just as good a friend to him if he had only dropped the eternal subject and treated me as he did Dee: like an ordinary girl who was ready for a good time but had no idea of a serious attachment. We were nothing but chits of girls, after all, and only out of school because Gresham happened to burn down before we had time to graduate.
"Umm! How you do smell of coal oil!" cried Dee. "Don't dare to touch anything in my line of groceries until you have washed your hands. There's a basin back there."
Wink laughed and washed his hands as commanded. Now if I had said to him what Dee had he would have been furious, and gloom impenetrable would have ensued.
That afternoon I cut off and planned four different dresses for four farmers' wives, selling trimming and ribbons and fancy buttons. I made many trades with persons bringing in eggs and chickens and carrying off various commodities in exchange. I was never so busy in my life. Dee was equally so, even after we had persuaded the noisy crowd from Maxton to depart.
"Goodness! I feel as though I had been serving at a church fair," cried Dee, sinking down exhausted on a soap box.
She had just wheedled a shy young farmer into thinking that existence could not continue without a box of scented soap and a new cravat, although he had made a trip to the store for nothing more ornate than salt for the cattle.
"How do you reckon Annie ever gets through the day if this one is a sample? I haven't stopped a minute and here come some more traders."
The fact was that Dee and I had done about three times as much selling as the Pores usually accomplished. Word had gone forth that we were keeping shop, and everybody hastened to the country store. Dee found this out by accident over the telephone. There was such a violent ringing of the bell that she hastened to answer it, not being on to the country 'phone where everybody's bell rings at every call. This is what she overheard:
"Say, Milly! Pore's have got some gals from Richmond clerking there. They can put you on to the styles."
"So I hear! I'm gettin' the mule hitched up fast as I can to go over."
And then a masculine voice took it up evidently from another section:
"They say they are peaches, too!"
"That you, Dick Lee? Where'd you hear about them?"
"Saw Lem Baker on the