COMPANY TRIALS. 375 



the parlor crowd; when he suffered rebuke from his father for 

 his lack of manners, and retaliated by saying that " mother 

 told him to ask!" So the latter has now but one thing to 

 trouble her, and that is provender for her hungry guests. 

 Shall it be ham ? The last one is worn to the bone. Shall it 

 be those other stand-bys, dried or frizzled beef? Alas ! the 

 places which knew them once are as bare as Mother Hubbard's 

 cupboard. Trips to the parlor door are taken, that consolation 

 and aid may be had from the helpmate (?) there entertaining 

 the company ; but winks and beckonings through the door- 

 crack meet with but tardy response. At last the husband 

 comes out into the hall, in a huff, and asks his wife what she 

 means interrupting them and breaking the chain of the argu- 

 ment, and when the case is mildly stated, says it's always the 

 way when " his folks " come visiting ; nothing to eat, and he 

 must be pestered about it. 'Tain't the way when " her folks " 

 come. Then there's no end of sponge cake and good things. 

 When she provokingly tells him that what she wants are the 

 very things that she told him to get the other day when at 

 election, he says, she ought to have known better than to have 

 bothered him at such a time, when he had so much on his 

 mind ; anyhow, he's heard enough. Finally, the little boy is 

 hoisted on the sharp backbone of the old family horse and 

 started off to the village sausage-shop for carnal food. He is 

 enjoined to also bring some necessary groceries, but, of course, 

 forgets them, and has to go back again. After much tribula- 

 tion and many paternal visits from the parlor to the kitchen, 

 to see what is making supper so late, that meal is at last 

 ready, and at the announcement of the same the group in the 

 parlor comes pouring into the dining room like ravening 

 wolves. One of the guests having said that " buckwheat cakes 

 would not go bad, but so many women hated to bake 'em," 

 mother, by the aid of some baking powder had hastily gotten 

 up a basis of the same, and spends the time between pouring 



