d cut up my corset into a harness for the dog and Jessup's
said they hadn't anybody to send up with a new one and John said he
couldn't go because his foot's bad, him having stepped on the rake
yesterday afternoon and not wanting to irritate it, so's he could go to
work tomorrow as usual. And Grandma's up to Billy Evans' trying to
keep him from going crazy or I could have borrowed one of hers. So I
'phoned Central to see if she couldn't hunt up somebody to bring me
that new corset from Jessup's. Well, who does she get hold of but
Denny, just as he's going past with a telegram for Jocelyn Brownlee.
He brought the corset with the string gone and the box broken and asked
me to help him figure out what that telegram meant. It said,

"'Coming better call it phyllis
BOB.'

"There's few men that can write a proper letter. We had to give it up.
And as if that wasn't enough, when I got to the creamery I met
Skinflint Holden and he told me there was a lot of disease amongst the
cattle and the men all got together and had a meeting and made Jake
Tuttle deputy marshal or something. It's a wonder Jake wouldn't say
something. I suppose he thinks the few old cows we have here in town
ain't worth saving.

"Well, anyhow, I was hurrying along so's not to be late and just as I
turned Tumley's hedge didn't Bessie come out with her face swollen so
she looked homelier than Theresa Meyer. It seems she had a birthday
and Alex brought her a big box of chocolates and they give her the
toothache. She went to Doc Mitchell but he put her off because he was
regulating and pulling every tooth in Hank Lolly's head. She was just
sick to think she had to miss Lilac Sunday and Mr. Courtney's last
sermon, but she told me to be sure and listen and if he let on he was
sorry he was leaving not to believe him, because he's had everything
except the parlor furniture crated for a month. They've been eating
off tin plates and drinking out of two enamel cups on the kitchen
table. Bessie thinks that for a minister he's full of sin and
self-pride. But I say even a minister--"

But at this point the hymn singing was over, the congregation settled
itself in comfortable attitudes, and the careful Mr. Courtney rose to
deliver his farewell sermon.

It was a sermon that stirred nobody. Green Valley was as glad to see
the Reverend Courtney departing as he was to go. His one cautious
reference to their pastorless state, for he did not know that