He wanted them to let us go out and help wash the
dishes, but they would not hear of it. I confess I was rather glad of
that, for it seemed a lower depth to which I could not descend, even
after eating with them. But they invited us out to look at the kitchen,
after they had got it in order a little, and when we joined them there,
whom should I see but my own dear old mother, with an apron up to her
chin, wiping the glass and watching carefully through her dear old
spectacles that she got everything bright! You know she was of a simpler
day than ours, and when she was young she used to do her own work, and
she and my father always washed the dishes together after they had
company. I merely said, "_Well_, mother!" and she laughed and colored,
and said she guessed she should like it in Altruria, for it took her back
to the America she used to know.
I must mention things as they come into my head, and not in any
regular order; there are too many of them. One thing is that I did
not notice till afterwards that we had had no meat that first day at
luncheon--the mushrooms were so delicious, and you know I never was much
of a meat-eater.
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