hinks
'twas Elvira Paine. Elvira lives acrost the road from Abbie Larkin and,
bein' a single woman with mighty little hopes of recovery, naturally
might be expected to enjoy upsettin' anybody else's chance. But, at
any rate, Mrs. Barnes, the whole thing bears out what I said at the
beginnin': takin' other folks' advice about your own affairs is mighty
risky. I hope, if you do go ahead with your boardin'-house plan, it
won't be because I called it a good one."

Thankful smiled and then sighed. "No," she said, "if I go ahead with
it it'll be because I've made up my mind to, not on account of anybody
else's advice. I've steered my own course for quite a long spell and I
sha'n't signal for a pilot now. Well, here we are home again--or at East
Wellmouth anyhow."

"So we be. Better come right to Hannah's along with me, hadn't you? You
must have had enough of the Holt Waldorf-Astory by this time."

But Thankful insisted upon going to the hotel and there her new
friend--for she had begun to think of him as that--left her. She
informed him of her intention to remain in East Wellmouth for another
day and a half and he announced his intention of seeing her again before
she left.

"Just want to keep an eye on you," he said. "With all of Mrs. Holt's
temptin' meals set afore you you may get gout or somethin' from
overeatin'. Either that or Winnie S.'ll talk you deef. I feel a kind
of responsibility, bein' as I'm liable to be your next-door neighbor
if that boardin'-house does start up, and I want you to set sail with a
clean bill of health. If you sight a suspicious-lookin' craft, kind
of antique in build, broad in the beam and makin' heavy weather up the
hills--if you sight that kind of craft beatin' down in this direction
tomorrow you'll know it's me. Good day."

Thankful lay awake for hours that night, thinking, planning and
replanning. More than once she decided that she had been too hasty, that
her scheme involved too great a risk and that, after all, she had better
abandon it. But each time she changed her mind and at last fell asleep
determining not to think any more about it, but to wait until Mr. Cobb
came to accept or decline the mortgage. Then she would make a final
decision.

The next day passed somehow, though it seemed to her as if it never
would, and early the following forenoon came Solomon himself. The man of
business was driving an elderly horse which bore a faint resemblance
to its owner, being small and th