Page:Cornelli (IA cornelli00spyr 0).pdf/68

 I have nothing for you here to-day. The ladies from town must not think that they have to show me how to cook a good dinner. I’ll show them. Go away and make room here for me. Make room, Cornelli! I have to fix the vegetables.”

Cornelli ran to the pantry.

Mina was just building up a splendid pile of cookies and almond rings. “Don’t come rushing in like that, or it will all tumble down,” she objected. “Don’t come so near to the table; this plate is all ready and nothing must be missing from it. I won’t have it said that one can see there is no mistress in this house, and that nobody here knows how to set a table.”

“If you are all so stingy to-day, I won’t bother you any more,” said Cornelli, and with these words she turned around and marched indignantly out of the house.

That moment, hearing the sound of approaching wheels, and looking down the road through the open place in front of the house, she spied the expected carriage with two ladies sitting in it.

“Matthew, Matthew,” she called out, in