e again. It's bad enough
to have a double husband, but, land's sakes, I'd rather that than be
part of a wife."

CHAPTER XII. Getting Acquainted

Althought Eliph' Hewlitt was not making much progress in his courtship
he was far from idle in the succeeding weeks. He had taken many orders
for Jarby's great book in the county, before he arrived in Kilo, and as
a shipment of the books arrived from New York he spent much of his
time behind old Irontail making his deliveries and collecting the first
payments, and some time in the immediate neighborhood making new sales.
One of the copies he had to deliver was the one purchased by Mrs.
Tarbro-Smith, but although he delivered it to her at Miss Sally's, he
did not have an opportunity to speak to Miss Sally, for she hid herself
when he approached the door, and did not come down stairs again until he
had left the house.

Mrs. Tarbro-Smith received the book with a lady-like enthusiasm, and
immediately placed it upon Miss Sally's center table, where its bright
red cover added a touch of cheerfulness to the room, suggestive of
the knowledge, literature, science and art the book was guaranteed to
irradiate in any family. But Miss Sally never so much as looked inside
its covers. She avoided it as if the thought the book itself might seize
her and sell to her, against her will, one of its fellows. Mrs. Smith
said openly that she wished she might see more of Eliph' Hewlitt, and
that she thought him a most remarkable book agent, particularly after
she had heard of his selling the Missionary Society a wholesale lot of
Jarby's Encyclopedia, and after glancing through the book she admitted
that it was really an excellent thing of its kind, but Miss Sally merely
remarked that she didn't like book agents, and that she hated this one
more than most, he was so slick.

The energetic spirit of Mrs. Smith was sure to carry her into anything
that partook of a social nature, and she had arrived in Kilo in the
midst of the festival season, when out-door festivals of all varieties
were following one after another almost weekly for the benefit of the
church, which had a properly clinging and insatiable debt. In these
festivals she took a prominent part, for the brought her in contact
with the people of Kilo as nothing else could, and if she enjoyed the
affairs, so did Susan. Susan bloomed wonderfully. She sprang at once
from childhood to young womanhood, and Mrs. Smith was pleased to have
her