`` However that may be , here is the tale , and the sequel to it is , that the bay mare has really gone to board at a first-class stable , '' concluded Miss Belinda . `` I call occasionally and leave my card in the shape of an apple , finding Madam Rosa living like an independent lady , with her large box and private yard on the sunny side of the barn , a kind ostler to wait upon her , and much genteel society from the city when she is inclined for company . `` What more could any reasonable horse desire ? '' VI . LUNCH . `` Sister Jerusha , it really does wear upon me to see those dear boys eat such bad pies and stuff day after day when they ought to have good wholesome things for lunch . I actually ache to go and give each one of 'em a nice piece of bread-and-butter or one of our big cookies , '' said kind Miss Mehitable Plummer , taking up her knitting after a long look at the swarm of boys pouring out of the grammar school opposite , to lark about the yard , sit on the posts , or dive into a dingy little shop close by , where piles of greasy tarts and cakes lay in the window . They would not have allured any but hungry school-boys , and ought to have been labelled Dyspepsia and Headache , so unwholesome were they . Miss Jerusha looked up from her seventeenth patchwork quilt , and answered , with a sympathetic glance over the way , -- `` If we had enough to go round I 'd do it myself , and save these poor deluded dears from the bilious turns that will surely take them down before vacation comes . That fat boy is as yellow as a lemon now , and no wonder , for I 've seen him eat half a dozen dreadful turnovers for one lunch . '' Both old ladies shook their heads and sighed , for they led a very quiet life in the narrow house that stood end to the street , squeezed in between two stores , looking as out of place as the good spinsters would have done among the merry lads opposite . Sitting at the front windows day after day , the old ladies had learned to enjoy watching the boys , who came and went , like bees to a hive , month by month . They had their favorites , and beguiled many a long hour speculating on the looks , manners , and probable station of the lads . One lame boy was Miss Jerusha 's pet , though she never spoke to him , and a tall bright-faced fellow , who rather lorded it over the rest , quite won Miss Hetty 's old heart by helping her across the street on a slippery day . They longed to mend some of the shabby clothes , to cheer up the dull discouraged ones , advise the sickly , reprove the rude , and , most of all , feed those who persisted in buying lunch at the dirty bake-shop over the way . The good souls were famous cooks , and had many books full of all manner of nice receipts , which they seldom used , as they lived simply and saw little company . A certain kind of molasses cookie made by their honored mother , -- a renowned housewife in her time , -- and eaten by the sisters as children , had a peculiar charm for them . A tin box was always kept full , though they only now and then nibbled one , and preferred to give them away to poor children , as they trotted to market each day . Many a time had Miss Hetty felt sorely tempted to treat the boys , but was a little timid , for they were rough fellows , and she regarded them much as a benevolent tabby would a party of frisky puppies . To-day the box was full of fresh cookies , crisp , brown , and sweet ; their spicy odor pervaded the room , and the china-closet door stood suggestively open .
Miss XXXXX 's spectacles turned that way , then went back to the busy scene in the street , as if trying to get courage for the deed .
Dyspepsia Hetty Jerusha Plummer Rosa bake-shop day hour month spinsters