"
I agreed to this, for the chance of having the kitchen to myself was
very tempting. The club was charmed; they said they would just live at
our house and help me with all their might.
"Then you won't have Hetty's moods to worry you," said Veva,
consolingly.
We had a good time. Nevertheless it was a happy day for me when Aunt
Hetty, bag and baggage, came home a week sooner than she was expected.
Nobody was looking for her; but the good old soul, having seen her
relations, felt restless, and wanted to get home.
"Somefin done tole me, honey," she said, "that Aunt Hetty am wanted
hyar, and sure enuf it's so. Yo' pa an' ma off on dey trabbles, and
nobody but one pore lamb lef' to take car' ob de house an' de ole madam.
I wouldn't hab gone only for dat no-account Sal anyhow."
I felt like a bird set free from a cage when Aunt Hetty appeared, and
she came in the very nick of time, too, for that same day up rolled the
stage, and out popped my great-aunt Jessamine (grandmamma's sister) from
Philadelphia. The two old ladies had so much to tell one another that
they had no need of me. So I went to the Downings', where the club was
to hold a meeting, armed with brushes and brooms, taking a practical
lesson in sweeping and dusting.
The Downings were without a maid, and we all turned in to help them.
Alice, Nell, and Clem, the older sisters, accepted our offer joyfully,
though I think their mother had doubts of the wisdom of setting so many
of us loose in her house at once.
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