bother 't all the rest have been havin'. She
says 't she ain't had no bother a _tall_. She says 't she whipped
Josephus nine times the day 't she took him home with her, 'n' since
then she's taught him to read 'n' write 'n' sew patchwork 'n' beat up
batter. She says 'f she'd 'a' had Henry Ward Beecher he wouldn't 'a'
roamed but once, nor would little Jane 'a' give but one suck, nor Fox
but one yell, nor would Augustus 'a' throwed but one cat down _her_
well. Mrs. Craig was standin' right there, 'n' she spoke up pretty
sharp at that 'n' said 't he hadn't throwed but one cat in her well
'n' she wanted that distinctly understood. Mrs. Jilkins jus' laughed,
but then some one up 'n' told her about the minister bein' gone f'r
good, 'n' she very quickly changed her tune.

"That blow 's goin' to fall heaviest on Mrs. Sperrit, though, for
she's got the five littlest ones 's well 's Bobby, 'n' I miss my guess
'f she don't have another to-morrow, for Mrs. Brown says 't she's
goin' to send Henry Ward Beecher out there of an errand jus' so 's to
see if he'll sleep after a ten-mile walk, 'n' every one knows 't she's
jus' doin' it in the hope 't Mrs. Sperrit 'll keep him."

"Let's go out--" Mrs. Lathrop suggested.

"It'll be cooler outside," Susan acquiesced; so they quitted the table
and went out on the porch.

"Mrs. Brown ain't a bit reconciled about her rare old rum," she went
on when they were seated; "she's bad enough used up over the
preserves, but the rum she can't seem to get reconciled to. She says
't a saltspoonful was a sure cure f'r anythin', 'n' Dr. Carter was
perfectly sound in mind 'n' body 'n' got away with two quarts."

There was a silence broken only by a frog's far croak.

"I ain't a doubt but this is the worst hot spell the c'mmunity 's ever
had to deal with," the younger woman remarked after a while, "'n' the
result is 't I'd never recommend no other town to choose such a time
to give their minister a fair field 'n' no favor. I c'n only say one
thing, Mrs. Lathrop, 'n' that is 't I've begun to feel 't I've
misjudged the minister. I never would 'a' give him credit for anythin'
like this. 'N' while I think he'd ought not to 'a' done it, still I
must say 't I can't but admire--if he had it in him to try--how well
he's carried it off.

"'N' to think 't, after all, it was our idea 's give him the chance!"

* * * * *

That Friday afternoon--just one week from the forever to be remembere