A slightly bewildered look appeared on
Aunt Eliza's face.
Bruff folded up the Will, and then looked my way; apparently wondering whether I did or did not mean to leave him alone with my
aunt. I had my mission of mercy to fulfil, and my bag of precious publications ready on my lap.
Sophia was in her chamber, reading, when her
aunt came in.
Aunt Plenty was utterly dissimilar, being a stout, brisk old lady, with a sharp eye, a lively tongue, and a face like a winter-apple.
The evening meal at the house is over, and
Aunt Chloe, who presided over its preparation as head cook, has left to inferior officers in the kitchen the business of clearing away and washing dishes, and come out into her own snug territories, to "get her ole man's supper"; therefore, doubt not that it is her you see by the fire, presiding with anxious interest over certain frizzling items in a stew-pan, and anon with grave consideration lifting the cover of a bake-kettle, from whence steam forth indubitable intimations of "something good." A round, black, shining face is hers, so glossy as to suggest the idea that she might have been washed over with white of eggs, like one of her own tea rusks.
"Oh,
Aunt Polly,
Aunt Polly, I don't know how to be glad enough that you let me come to live with you," she was sobbing.
I got that out of Cora The Doctor's Wife whose husband's mother was very cross and unfealing to her like
Aunt M.
"I know but too well how my
aunt's mind is affected by the fever."
'I have forgotten my flowers,' said the spinster
aunt.
I inquired about my
aunt among the boatmen first, and received various answers.
He was a good man, and worked in the field as hard as he could; and
Aunt Em did all the housework, with Dorothy's help.
"I suppose you feel kind of, sorry" said
Aunt Jamesina.