Pen was no tame and pathetic figure. She was the sort of youngster that is made savage by pain. Consequently next morning there was thunder in the air at Broome's Point. Pen's storms were rare and rather terrible. They cleared the air wonderfully. Perhaps it would have been better for that slack household if they had broken oftener. Black Aunt Maria Garner seeing her mistress' face, rolled the whites of her eyes apprehensively, and propelled her unwieldy bulk about the kitchen with a surprising celerity. She said cooingly:
"Honey, Ah'm gwine beat yo' up nice li'l cheese soufflé fo' yo' lunch!"
"Go along with you, Aunt Maria!" cried Pen with an exasperated laugh. "I'm not going to be taken in with your cheese soufflés! If you want to please me get your work done! Look at this kitchen!"
"'Deed honey, Ah done come at sun-up this mawnin'. Deed I doggone swear did I!"
"What good is your coming at sun-up or sun-down if you only rock your fat body on a chair and smoke that filthy pipe!"
"Miss Penny, honey, I got the mos' awfulles' misehy...."
"That's enough of your misery. When I came in that door you started to move as spry as a kitten after its tail!"
At this moment the head of Theodo', Aunt Maria's sixth or thereabouts, appeared outside the kitchen window. Aunt Maria unseen by Pen silently and frantically waved him back, but his momentum was too great. He came on in with his foolish, engaging grin.
"What are you doing in the house at this hour?" she demanded.
Theodo's face turned ashy, but he still grinned. "Ah ... Ah jes' come fo' watah," he stammered.
"And left your horses standing in the field!" stormed Pen. "You don't want water. It's only because you can't keep your trifling mind on your work for more than half an hour at a time. To-morrow is the first of June and you haven't got your ploughing done! And everybody else's corn is six inches high! Go back to your horses and let me hear no more of water!"
But the storm did not really break until Pen, going to make her butter, found the broken paddle of her churn still unmended. She marched back through the kitchen, through the big pantry into the dining-room bearing the broken paddle like Nemesis. Aunt Maria's vast body heaved in silent chuckles.