she could only gasp during the transit
At first, there was an ominous silence in respect to words.?Portentous sounds increased, however, for Mrs. Wiggins strode about with martial tread, making the boards creak and the dishes clatter, while her red eyes shot lurid and sanguinary gleams.?She would seize a dipper as if it were a foe, slamming it upon the table again as if striking an enemy.?Under her vigorous manipulation, kettles and pans resounded with reports like firearms.
Mrs. Mumpson was evidently perturbed; her calm superiority was forsaking her; every moment she rocked faster–a sure indication that she was not at peace.?At last she said, with great dignity: “Mrs. Viggins, I must request you to perform your tasks with less clamor.?My nerves are not equal to this peculiar way of taking up and laying down things.”
“Vell, jes’ ye vait a minute, han hi’ll show ye ‘ow hi kin take hup things han put ’em down hag’in hout o’ my vay,” and before Mrs. Mumpson could interfere, she found herself lifted, chair and all bodily, and carried to the parlor.?Between trepidation and anger, she could only gasp during the transit, and when left in the middle of the parlor floor she looked around in utter bewilderment.
It so happened that Holcroft, on his way from the barn, had seen Jane looking in at the window, and, suspecting something amiss, had arrived just in time for the spectacle.?Convulsed with laughter, he returned hastily to the barn; while Jane expressed her feelings, whatever they were, by executing something like a hornpipe before the window.
Mrs. Mumpson, however, was not vanquished.?She had only made a compulsory retreat from the scene of hostilities; and, after rallying her shattered faculties, advanced again with the chair. “How dared you, you disreputerble female?” she began.
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