Page:Mistress Madcap Surrenders (1926).pdf/261

 entered the Condit kitchen abruptly. "How does my gown look?"

Mistress Condit turned a perspiring face toward her daughter. She had been up long before dawn, preparing the wedding feast and performing the thousand and one endless tasks that only the mother of the family thinks she must do at such times.

"Your bonnet looks very well—of course no one sat on it!—and so does your gown, Hitty!" she gasped. "Go tell Cherry to keep still—she drives me fair distracted! I won't pick her roses—I ha' no time, tell her! Call up to your father and tell him his silken shirt do be in the highboy, second drawer! And take the to John before he shouts us all out o' the house! Mercy, Nancy be the only quiet one beneath this roof! No!" Mistress Condit shook her head as she turned back to lift a furiously boiling pot from the crane and swung another into its place in the fire cavern. "Ye can do naught here, Hitty! I want to get everything ready before we start for church, then we can cool off this room and reheat the food outdoors. Art going out?" She looked up sharply as, her errands done, Mehitable stepped toward the door. "Then tell Amos to watch that roasting-pig he be barbecuing! I'll ne'er forgive him an he lets it burn!"

"Amos does not speak to me," answered Mehitable, a shadow falling over her bright face. "He