Page:Mehalah 1920.djvu/121

Rh adhere to a character stronger than herself. She had hung on and smothered her husband, and now she dragged at her daughter. Mehalah must stand upright or Mrs. Sharland would crush her to the ground. There are women like articles of furniture that will "wobble" unless a penny or a wedge of wood be put under their feet. Mrs. Sharland was always crying out for some trifle to steady her. Mehalah did not share her mother's anticipations that the danger had passed with the day, that Mrs. De Witt's purpose had given way to kinder thoughts; she was quite sure that she would prove relentless and push matters to extremities. It was this certainty which drove her to act once more on her mother's suggestion, and go to the Mersea Rectory, to endeavour to borrow the sum of money needed to relieve them from immediate danger. She found the parson in his garden without his coat, which hung on the hedge, making a potato pie for the winter. He was on all fours packing the tubers in straw. His boots and gaiters were clogged with clay. "Hallo!" he exclaimed as Mehalah came up. "You are the girl they call Glory? Look here. I want you to see my kidneys. Did you ever see the like, come clean out of the ground without canker? Would you like a peck? I'll give them you. Boil beautiful." "I want to speak with you, sir." "Speak then by all means, and don't mind me. I must attend to my kidneys. A fine day like this is not to be wasted at this time of the year. Go on. There is an ashtop for you. I don't care for the potato as a potato. It don't boil all to flour as I like. You can have a few if you like. Now go on." Down went his head again, and was buried in a nest of straw. Mehalah waited. She did not care to address his back and legs, the only part of his person visible. "You can't be too careful with potatoes," said the parson, presently emerging, very red in the face, and with a pat of clay on his nose. "You must make them comfortable for the winter. Do to others as you would they should do to you. Keep them well from frost, and they will boil beautiful all the winter through. Go on