Part 5 (2/2)

A man f'rever talkin' like that 's bound to tell everythin' sooner or later, 'n' I never was one to set any great store o' faith on a talker. When I don't want the whole town to know 't I'm layin' in rat-poison I buy of Sh.o.r.es, 'n' when I get a new dress I buy o'

Kimball. I don't want my rats talked about 'n' I don't mind my dress.

For which same reason I sh'll make no try 't foolin' my baby. I'll be content if it cooes. I remember Mrs. Macy's sayin' once 't a baby was sweetest when it cooes, 'n' I don't want to miss nothin', 'n' we ain't never kep' doves for me to be dead-sick o' the noise, so I want the cooin' age. I think it'll be pleasant comin' home days to hear the baby cooin', 'n' 'f it cooes too loud when I'm away you c'n always come over 'n' see if it's rolled anywhere. I c'n see that, generally speaking, it's a wise thing that folks jus' have to take 'em as they come, because when it's all for you to choose you want so much 't like 's not I can't be suited after all. It's goin' to be pretty hard decidin', 'n' when I've done decidin' it's goin' to be pretty hard findin' a baby that's all 't I've decided; 'n' then, _if_ I find it,--then comes the raisin' of it, 'n' I espect that 'll be suthin'

jus' awful.”

”How was you goin' to find--” Mrs. Lathrop asked.

”Well, I've got to go to town to look at winter coats, 'n' I thought 't when I'd found what I wanted I'd jus' glance through two or three orphan asylums afore comin' home.”

Mrs. Lathrop pinned the purple to the yellow and shut one eye so as to judge of the combination from the single standpoint of the other. She seemed to be gradually regaining her normal state of abnormal calmness.

”I thought 't your coat was pretty good,” she said mildly, as Susan altered her needles. The stocking started violently.

”Pretty good! It's most new. My heavens alive, Mrs. Lathrop, don't you know 's well 's I do 't I ain't had my new coat but four years 'n'

then only to church!”

”You _said_ 't you was goin' to get--” Mrs. Lathrop remarked, unpinning the purple as she spoke and replacing it in the bag.

”_Mrs. Lathrop_! 'f you don't beat anythin' 't I ever saw for puttin'

words 't I never even dreamed of into other folks's mouths! 'S if I should ever think o' buyin' a new coat 'n' the price-tag not even dirty on the inside o' mine yet! I never said 't I was goin' to buy a coat,--I never thought o' goin' to buy a coat,--what I did say was 't I was goin' to _look at_ coats, an' the reason 't I'm goin' to look at coats is because I'm goin' to cut over the sleeves o' mine. I thought all last winter 't it was pretty queer for a woman 's rich 's I be to wear old-fas.h.i.+oned sleeves--more particularly so where I c'n easy cut a new sleeve crossways out o' the puffs o' the old ones. 'N' _that's_ why I want to look at coats, Mrs. Lathrop, for I ain't in the habit o'

settin' my shears in where I can't see my way out.”

Mrs. Lathrop fingered a piece of rusty black silk and made no comment.

”When I get done lookin' at coats, lookin' 't orphans 'll be jus' a nice change. If I see any 't I think might suit I'll take their numbers 'n' come home 'n' see about decidin', 'n' if I don't see any 't I like I'll come home jus' the same.”

The clock struck nine. Mrs. Lathrop rose and gathered up her bag of pieces.

”I mus' be goin' home,” she said.

”I was thinkin' that very same thing,” said Susan, rising also. ”It's our thinkin' so much the same't keeps us friends, I guess.”

Mrs. Lathrop sought her shawl and departed.

It was about a week later that the trip to town took place. The day was chosen to suit the opening of a most unprecedented Fire-Sale. Miss Clegg thought that the latest styles in coat-sleeves were likely to bloom broadcast on so auspicious an occasion, and Mrs. Lathrop herself was sufficiently infected by the advertising in the papers to dare to intrust her friend with the whole of a two-dollar bill to be judiciously invested if bargains should really run as wildly rife as was predicted.

Susan departed very early and did not get back till very late--so late in fact that her next-door neighbor had the time to become more than a little anxious as to the possibilities of some mischance having befallen her two-dollar bill.

But towards eight o'clock signs of life next door appeared to the anxious watcher in the Lathrop kitchen window, and one minute later she was on her way across. She found the front door, which was commonly open, to be uncommonly shut, and was forced to rap loudly and wait lengthily ere the survivor of the Fire-Sale came to let her in.

Then when the door did open the figure which appeared in the opening was such as to startle even the phlegmatically disposed chewer of clover.

”My heavens alive, Susan, whatever is the matter with--”

Susan backed faintly into the hall so as to allow the other to enter.

”I'm worn to a frazzle--that's all!” she said weakly and wearily.

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