Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/193

Rh fed at noon and their brother always came in from the fields for a snack, but the cue was given by the Bollings' great bell across the river, or by the hub factory's shrill whistle.

Rebecca found it difficult to adjust herself to this dinner hour. In her Bohemian life what dining she had done had been somewhere between six and seven o'clock, with luncheon between twelve and one. When she first came to Mill House the time between breakfast and dinner had seemed interminable, but she had learned of the snack her uncle was accustomed to have at noon and had formed a habit of coming to Aunt Testy at the same time for a pone of hot corn bread and a mug of fresh buttermilk. She was careful not to be in Spot's way, however, realizing that her presence was distasteful to him. He usually had his snack at a table on the long back porch which separated the outside kitchen from the rest of the house. Rebecca, with her mug of buttermilk fresh from the churn, with delectable bits of butter floating around in it, and her great crisp corn pone, would seat herself on the lower porch step. The only thing to mar her happiness was the lack of companionship during this luncheon. She could hear the hands laughing and talking in the kitchen, where Aunt Testy