o much?"

"I guess anybody't drives a seed-cart or peddles stuff along the road
knows enough o' women to keep clear of 'em. They'll come out the kitchen
door, choose their papers o' seasonin' an' bottles o' flavorin', worry
you 'bout the price an' take the aidge off every dime, make up an' then
onmake their minds 'bout what they want, ask if it's pure, an' when by
good luck you git your cart out o' the yard, they come runnin' along the
road after ye to git ye to swop a bottle o' vanilla for some spruce gum
an' give 'em back the change."

Susanna could not help smiling at Ansel's arraignment of her sex. "Do
you think they follow you for the pleasure of shopping, or the pleasure
of your conversation, Ansel?" she asked slyly.

"A little o' both, mebbe; though the pleasure's all on their side,"
returned the unchivalrous Ansel. "But take them same women, cut their
hair close to their heads (there's a heap o' foolishness in hair,
somehow), purge 'em o' their vanity, so they won't be lookin' in the
glass all the time, make 'em depend on one another for sassiety, so they
won't crave no conversation with men-folks, an' you git an article
that's 'bout as good and 'bout as stiddy as a man!"

"You never seem to remember that men are just as dangerous to women's
happiness and goodness as women are to men's," said Susanna,
courageously.

"It don't seem so to me! Never see a man, hardly, that could stick to
the straight an' narrer if a woman wanted him to go the other way. Weak
an' unstable as water, men-folks are, an' women are pow'ful strong."

"Have your own way, Ansel! I'm going back to the world, but no man shall
ever say I hindered him from being good. You'll see women clearer in
another world."

"There'll be precious few of 'em to see!" retorted Ansel. "You're about
the best o' the lot, but even you have a kind of a managin' way with ye,
besides fillin' us all full o' false hopes that we'd gathered in a
useful Believer, one cal'lated to spread the doctrines o' Mother Ann!"

"I know, I know, Ansel, and oh, how sorry I am! You would never believe
how I long to stay and help you, never believe how much you have helped
me! Good-by, Ansel; you've made me smile when my heart was breaking. I
shan't forget you!"

XII

THE HILLS OF HOME

[Illustration]

Susanna had found Sue in the upper chamber at the Office Building, and
began to make the simple preparations for her homeward journey.

It was the very hour when