“Well,” Mrs. Babcock continued, still sniggering unpleasantly, “I don’t want to hurt your feelin’s, Mandy; you needn’t color up so; but I can’t help laughin’.”

“Laugh, then, if you want to,” said Amanda, with a quick flash.  She forgot the screen-door.

Mrs. Babcock drew her face down quickly.  “Land, Mandy,” said she, “don’t get mad.  I didn’t mean anything.  Anybody knows that old maids is jest as good as them that gets married.  I ain’t told you what I come over here for.  I declare I got so terrible heated up, I couldn’t think of nothin’.  Look here, Mandy.”

Amanda mended on the stocking foot drawn tightly over her left hand, and did not raise her eyes.

“Mandy, you ain’t mad, be you?  You know I didn’t mean nothin’.”

“I ain’t mad,” replied Amanda, in a constrained tone.

“Well, there ain’t nothin’ to be mad about.  Look here, Mandy, how long is it since Mis’ Field and Lois went?”

“About three months.”

“Look here!  I dunno what you’ll say, but I think Mis’ Green thought real favorable of it.  Do you know how cheap you can go down to Boston an’ back now?”

Amanda looked up.  “No.  Why?” said she.

Mrs. Babcock stopped fanning and leaned forward.  “Amanda Pratt, you can go down to Boston an’ back, an’ be gone a week, for—­three dollars an’ sixty cents.”

Amanda stared back at her in a startled way.

“Let’s you an’ me an’ Mis’ Green go down an’ see Mis’ Field an’ Lois,” said Mrs. Babcock, in a tragic voice.

Amanda turned pale.  “They don’t live in Boston,” she said, with a bewildered air.

“We can go down to Boston on the early train,” replied Mrs. Babcock, importantly.  “Then we can have all the afternoon to go round Boston an’ see the sights, an’ then, toward night, we can go out to Mis’ Field’s.  Land, here’s Mis’ Green now!  She said she’d come over as soon as Abby got home from school.  I’m jest tellin’ her about it, Mis’ Green.”

Mrs. Green stood in the doorway, smiling half-shamefacedly.  “I s’pose you think it’s a dreadful silly plan, Mandy,” said she deprecatingly.

Amanda got up and pushed the rocking-chair in which she had been sitting toward the new-comer.

“Set down, do,” said she.  “I dunno, Mis’ Green.  I ain’t had time to think it over, it’s come so sudden.”  Amanda’s face was collected, but her voice was full of agitation.

“Well,” said Mrs. Green, “I ain’t known which end my head is on since Mis’ Babcock come in an’ spoke of it.  First I thought I couldn’t go nohow, an’ I dunno as I can now.  Still, it does seem dreadful cheap to go down to Boston an’ back, an’ I ain’t been down more’n four times in the last twenty years.  I ain’t been out gaddin’ much, an’ that’s a fact.”

“The longer you set down in one corner, the longer you can,” remarked Mrs. Babcock.  “I believe in goin’ while you’ve got a chance, for my part.”