ground mole, for heaven sakes?"

"Course I've heard of a ground mole! But what's a ground mole got to do
with a cigar, I want to know? And you said a moleHILL. What's a ground
mole doin' up on a hill?"

"Not up ON one--IN one. A molehill is what a ground mole lives in, ain't
it? It's just a sayin'.... Oh, never mind! Go on! Take a walk."

"_I_ don't want to walk. And a ground mole lives in a hole, not a hill,
like a--like a ant. You know that as well as I do. And, anyhow, nobody
said anything about ground moles, or--or mud turtles neither, far's that
goes. No, nor five cent cigars. Now, Raish, I'll tell you what they're
sayin'; they say--"

"And I'll tell YOU! Listen! Listen, now, because this is the last time
I'll tell anybody anything except to go--"

"Sshh, shh, Raish! Alvira's right in the kitchen and the window's
open.... No, 'tain't, it's shut. Where will they go?"

"Listen, you! I've bought those few extra shares of Development because
I had some myself and thought I might as well have a few more. I bought
'em and I paid for 'em. Nobody says I ain't paid for 'em, do they?"

"No, no. Don't anybody say that. All they say IS--"

"Be still! Now I bought those shares. What of it? It's my business,
ain't it? Yes. And I haven't bought any more. You can tell 'em that: I
HAVEN'T BOUGHT ANY MORE."

"Oh, all right, Raish, all right. I'll tell 'em you ain't. But--"

"That's all. Now forget it! For-GET it!"

Which should, perhaps, have been sufficient and convincing. But there
were still some unconvinced. For example, Martha happened to meet one
morning, while on an errand in the village, the president of the Denboro
Trust Company. He explained that he had motored over, having a little
matter of personal business to attend to.

"I haven't seen you for some time, Miss Phipps," he observed. "Not since
our--er--little talk about the Wellmouth Development stock. That was the
last time, wasn't it?"

Martha said that it was. He lowered his voice a very little and asked,
casually: "Still holding on to your two hundred and fifty shares, are
you?"

"Why, that was what you told me to do, wasn't it?"

"Yes, yes. I believe it was. Humph! Just so, yes. So you've still got
those shares?"

Martha smiled. "I haven't sold 'em to Raish Pulcifer, if that's what
you're hintin' at," she said.

He seemed a bit embarrassed. "Well," he admitted, with a laugh, "I guess
I'll have to own that I did mean that. There seems to be a go