. Mrs. Macy says as she really does
believe that if Mrs. Kitts took a fancy to oysters in August she'd be
fully equal to ringin' that bell for 'em till September came an' they
could get 'em for her. She says it would be just like her, she does
declare. Mrs. Macy says she sit with Mrs. Kitts considerable an' Mrs.
Kitts was very pleasant to her, an' give her two pair of black lace
mitts an' a pin, but she found out afterwards as the mitts was Mrs.
Lupey's an' the pin was Maria's, so after that she see just how the
family felt about her an' her ways. Mrs. Macy says the whole thing is a
tragedy right out of Shakespeare an' the only pleasant thing about her
whole visit was as it did n't cost her nothin'."

"Did she--" asked Mrs. Lathrop.

"Oh yes, I forgot to tell you about that. She see him four times. I
don't know as she wants it generally known, but I wanted to know about
it so I got it out of her. It does beat all, Mrs. Lathrop, how a woman
of Mrs. Macy's sense, with a income that's only a little too small to
get along on, can want to marry any man again. But she seems kind of
crazy on the idea, an' if it ain't Mr. Dill, it's goin' to be Dr.
Carter, or bu'st, with her. She says she went to his office just to let
him know she was in Meadville, an' then she see him on the street, an'
then she went to his office again to ask him his real opinion of Mrs.
Kitts, an' then just before she left she went to his office again to let
him know as she was goin' to come back here. So she see him four times
in all."

"What did--" asked Mrs. Lathrop.

"Oh, he told her as he would n't be surprised if any of 'em died any
day. That is, any of 'em except Mrs. Kitts. He did n't seem to think as
Mrs. Kitts would ever die."

"What do--" asked Mrs. Lathrop.

"Oh, I saw there was nothin' else as Mrs. Macy could talk about just now
so I come home an' then I come over here. I declare though, Mrs.
Lathrop, I can't help bein' a little blue to-night. Of course I ain't
any real relation to you, but we've been neighbors so long that I can't
help feelin' a little bit uneasy over thinkin' of Mrs. Kitts an'
wonderin' how long you may be goin' to live in the end."

CHAPTER XI

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

"Well, Mrs. Lathrop," said Susan Clegg one pleasant May evening, as she
and her devoted listener leaned their elbows on the top rail of the
fence, "I can't but thank Heaven as these boards is the only thing as
you ever take opposite sides from