r-in-law.

"Oh, _I see!_" she sniffed. "That was where you was pointing for, all
the while! And you didn't let on to me, oh, no!"

"Now, Lois, don't you get excited," exhorted Mrs. Daggett. "It was
just about the wall papers. Henry, he says to me this mornin'--...
Git-ap, Dolly!"

_"'Henry says--Henry says'!_ Yes; I guess so! What do you know about
wall papers, Abby? ...Well, all I got to say is: I don't want nobody
looking on an' interfering when I'm trying to sell 'Lives of Famous
People.' Folks, es a rule, ain't so interested in anything they got
to pay out money fer, an' I want a clear field."

"I won't say a word till you're all through talkin', Lois," promised
Mrs. Daggett meekly. "Mebbe she'd kind of hate to say 'no' before me.
She's took a real liking to Henry.... Git-ap, Dolly.... And anyway,
she's awful generous. I could say, kind of careless; 'If I was you,
I'd take a leather-bound.' Couldn't I, Lois?"

"Well, you can come in, Abby, if you're so terrible anxious,"
relented Miss Daggett. "You might tell her, you and Henry was going
to take a leather-bound; that might have some effect. I remember once
I sold three Famous People in a row in one street. There couldn't one
o' them women endure to think of her next door neighbor having
something she didn't have."

"That's so, Lois," beamed Mrs. Daggett. "The most of folks is about
like that. Why, I rec'lect once, Henry brought me up a red-handled
broom from th' store. My! it wa'n't no time b'fore he was cleaned
right out of red-handled brooms. Nobody wanted 'em natural color,
striped, or blue. Henry, he says to me, 'What did you do to advertise
them red-handled brooms, Abby?' 'Why, papa,' says I, 'I swept off my
stoop and the front walk a couple of times, that's all.' 'Well,' he
says, 'broom-handles is as catching as measles, if you only get 'em
th' right color!' ... Git-ap, Dolly!"

"Well, did you _ever!_" breathed Miss Daggett excitedly, leaning out
of the buggy to gaze upon the scene of activity displayed on the
further side of the freshly-pruned hedge which divided Miss Lydia
Orr's property from the road: "Painters and carpenters and masons,
all going at once! And ain't that Jim Dodge out there in the side
yard talking to her? 'Tis, as sure as I'm alive! I wonder what _he's_
doing? Go right in, Abby!"

"I kind of hate to drive Dolly in on that fresh gravel," hesitated
Mrs. Daggett. "He's so heavy on his feet he'll muss it all up. Mebbe
I'd bette