The stew was almost done, Mrs.
Whitman was just about to dip out the slices of pork into the dish that
Ruth held, when there was a roll of wheels out in the yard, and a great
shadow passed over the kitchen floor.
"Mother, it's the Wigginses!" said Ruth, in a terrified whisper.
"Good gracious!" sighed her mother; "they've come to dinner."
Everybody stared for a second; then Mrs. Whitman recovered herself.
"Father, you go out an' help them put the horse up. Don't sit there any
longer."
Then she threw open the door, and thrust her large handsome face out
into the rain. "Why, how do you do, Mis' Wiggins?" said she, and she
smiled beamingly.
[Illustration: "A PARSNIP STEW"]
The wagon looked full of faces. On the front seat were a large man and
two little boys; out of the gloom in the rear peered two women and a
little girl. They were Mr. Wiggins, his wife and three children, and his
mother. They were distant relatives of Mrs. Whitman's; they often came
over to spend the day, and always unannounced.
Mr. Whitman came out clumsily and opened the barn doors, and Mr. Wiggins
led the horse into the barn. "I hope you 'ain't got wet," Mrs. Whitman
said. Nothing could have exceeded her cordiality; but all the time she
was thinking of the parsnip stew, and how it surely would not go around
now.
Ruth had not followed the others out to greet the guests. She stayed by
the kettle and stirred the stew, and scowled.
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