" Seeing my sober face as we drew nigh
the house my uncle laughed, as he said in an encouraging tone, "Don't
you be a grain scared, Walter, neither of them old wimmen will hurt you.
I shouldn't a said a word, only I thought if I gave you a hint of Aunt
Lucinder's queer ways you'd know better how to get along with her." I
had always thought all women like my own mild-speaking mother and kind
old Mrs. Judson, but by this time I began to think Aunt Lucinda must
differ very widely from them; and when I followed Uncle Nathan into the
clean wide kitchen where a bountiful supper awaited our arrival, I felt
somehow as though I was stepping upon dangerous ground, and I almost
feared to set my foot down lest it might chance to be in the wrong
place. Aunt Lucinda, however, gave me a much more kindly welcome than I
had feared, which I regarded as a favourable omen. She also introduced
me to the notice of my aged grandmother who was seated in her deep
arm-chair in the corner. She has seen more than eighty years of life, but
as she sits there, day by day, in her quiet decrepitude, she still
pretends to a superintendence of the labors of Aunt Lucinda in a way
that might sometimes provoke a smile.
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