Elmira, with her blue checked pinafore tied under her chin, sat in a high wooden chair, with her little bare feet curling over a round, and beat eggs with a wooden spoon in a great bowl.
"What you doin' ?" asked Jerome.
Her mother answered for her.

"She's mixin' up some custard for pies," said she.

"I dun'no' as there's any need of you standin' lookin' as if you never saw any before." "Never saw you makin' custard-pies at ten o'clock at night before," returned Jerome, with blunt defiance.
"Do you s'pose," said his mother, "that I'm goin' to let your father go off an' die all alone an' take no notice of it ?" "Dun'no' what you mean ?" "Don't you know it's three days since he went off to get that wood an' never come back ?" Jerome nodded.
"Do you s'pose I'm goin' to let it pass an' die away, an' folks forget him, an' not have any funeral or anything?
I made up my mind I'd wait until nine o'clock to-night, an' then, if he wa'n't found, I wouldn't wait any longer.

I'd get ready for the funeral.

I've sent over for Paulina Maria and your aunt B'lindy to come in an' help.
Henry come over here to see if I'd heard anything, and I told him to go right home an' tell his mother to come, an' stop on the way an' tell Paulina Maria.