st him, but she was greatly
worried and mebbe I could help her. The horrible truth was that her boy
was betraying an inclination to get fat, and he'd only laugh at her when
she warned him. Many a night her pillow had been wet with tears on this
account, and did I believe in any of these remedies for reducing? Wasn't
there something she could slip into his pudding that would keep him down
without his knowing it, because otherwise, though it was a thing no true
wife ought to say, her beloved would dig his grave with his teeth.

I thought that was about enough and even ample. I started a hot answer to
this letter, saying that if darling Clyde was digging his grave with his
teeth it was her own fault because she was providing the spade and the
burial plot, and the quickest way to thin her darling down would be for
her to quit work. But shucks! Why insult the poor thing? I got back my
composure and wrote her a nice letter of sympathy in her hour of great
trouble. I didn't say at all that if I had been in her place Mr. Clyde
would of long since had my permission to go to the devil. Yes, sir; I'd
have had that lad going south early in the second year. Mebbe not at
that! A woman never really knows how some other man might of made a
fool of her.

Two more years drug on, with about two letters from Vida, and then I
get a terrible one announcing the grand crash. First, the boarding house
had died a lingering death, what from Vida buying the best the market
afforded and not having learned to say "No!" to parties that got behind,
and Clyde having had to lend a couple hundred dollars to a fraternity
brother that was having a little hard luck. She'd run the business on a
narrow trail for the last two months, trying to guard every penny, but
it got so she and Clyde actually had to worry over his next club dues,
to say nothing of a new dress suit he was badly needing. Then some
parties she owed bills to come along and pushed her over the cliff by
taking her furniture. She was at first dreadfully worried about how her
boy would stand the blow, but he'd took it like the brave, staunch man
he was, being such a help to her when they had to move to a furnished
room near the old home where they both had been so happy. He'd fairly
made the place ring with his musical laughter and his merry jesting
about their hardships.

Then she'd got a good job as cashier in a big grocery she'd dealt
with, not getting a million dollars a year, to be sure,