ousin that went out to Tombstone for her health, and she
wrote to a postmaster, or to some kind of a town authority, and found
Jim and wrote back aunt Achsy all about him and just how unfortunate
he'd been. They knew when I had my teeth out and a new set made; they
knew when I put on a false front-piece; they knew when the fruit
peddler asked me to be his third wife--I never told 'em, an' you can be
sure HE never did, but they don't NEED to be told in this village; they
have nothin' to do but guess, an' they'll guess right every time. I was
all tuckered out tryin' to mislead 'em and deceive 'em and sidetrack
'em; but the minute I got where I wa'n't put under a microscope by day
an' a telescope by night and had myself TO myself without sayin' 'By
your leave,' I begun to pick up. Cousin Cyrus is an old man an'
consid'able trouble, but he thinks my teeth are handsome an' says I've
got a splendid suit of hair. There ain't a person in Lewiston that
knows about the minister, or father's will, or Jim's doin's, or the
fruit peddler; an' if they should find out, they wouldn't care, an'
they couldn't remember; for Lewiston 's a busy place, thanks be!"

Miss Delia Weeks may have exaggerated matters somewhat, but it is easy
to imagine that Rebecca as well as all the other Riverboro children had
heard the particulars of the Widow Rideout's missing sleigh and Abner
Simpson's supposed connection with it.

There is not an excess of delicacy or chivalry in the ordinary country
school, and several choice conundrums and bits of verse dealing with
the Simpson affair were bandied about among the scholars, uttered
always, be it said to their credit, in undertones, and when the Simpson
children were not in the group.

Rebecca Randall was of precisely the same stock, and had had much the
same associations as her schoolmates, so one can hardly say why she so
hated mean gossip and so instinctively held herself aloof from it.

Among the Riverboro girls of her own age was a certain excellently
named Minnie Smellie, who was anything but a general favorite. She was
a ferret-eyed, blond-haired, spindle-legged little creature whose mind
was a cross between that of a parrot and a sheep. She was suspected of
copying answers from other girls' slates, although she had never been
caught in the act. Rebecca and Emma Jane always knew when she had
brought a tart or a triangle of layer cake with her school luncheon,
because on those days she forsook the che