`` Welcome , ladies , '' he said , holding out a big , hard , but scrupulously clean hand . `` I thought you 'd be feeling a bit tired and hungry , maybe , so when I came over to open up I put on a fire and brewed you up a cup of tea . I just delight in being neighbourly and ` tai n't often I have the chance . '' We found that Uncle Jesse 's `` cup of tea '' meant a veritable spread . He had aired the little dining room , set out the table daintily with Aunt Elizabeth 's china and linen -- `` knowed jest where to put my hands on 'em -- often and often helped old Miss Kennedy wash 'em . We were cronies , her and me . I miss her terrible '' -- and adorned it with mayflowers which , as we afterwards discovered , he had tramped several miles to gather . There was good bread and butter , `` store '' biscuits , a dish of tea fit for the gods on high Olympus , and a platter of the most delicious sea trout , done to a turn . `` Thought they 'd be tasty after travelling , '' said Uncle Jesse . `` They 're fresh as trout can be , ma'am . Two hours ago they was swimming in Johnson 's pond yander . I caught 'em -- yes , ma'am . It 's about all I 'm good for now , catching trout and cod occasional . But ` twere n't always so -- not by no manner of means . I used to do other things , as you 'd admit if you saw my life-book . '' I was so hungry and tired that I did not then `` rise to the bait '' of Uncle Jesse 's `` life-book . '' I simply wanted to begin on those trout . Mother insisted that Uncle Jesse sit down and help us eat the repast he had prepared , and he assented without undue coaxing . `` Thank ye kindly . ` Twill be a real treat .
I mostly has to eat my meals alone , XXXXX the reflection of my ugly old phiz in a looking glass opposite for company .
after ago as by for if of that to with