Her dress was like my mother had worn several years before, in style, and of stiff gray stuff.

She made me feel that no one wanted her at home, and probably that was the reason she had come so far away.
Every one stood dumb.

Mother always went to meet people and May was old enough to know it.

She went, but she looked exactly as she does when the wafer bursts and the quinine gets in her mouth, and she doesn't dare spit it out, because it costs five dollars a bottle, and it's going to do her good.

Father introduced May and some of the older children, and May helped him with the others, and then he told us to "dig in and work like troopers," and he would take Miss Pollard on home.
"Oh do let me remain and help the dear children!" she cried.
"We can finish!" we answered in full chorus.
"How lovely of you!" she chirped.
Chirp makes you think of a bird; and in speech and manner Miss Amelia Pollard was the most birdlike of any human being I ever have seen.