r my lunch won't be any the better for ridin' to town
an' back this hot day, but the Lord fits the back to the burden, so I
guess Elijah will be able to eat it, leastways if he don't he won't get
nothin' else,--I know _that_, for it was him as got up the fine idea of
sending a delegate from the sewin' society to the convention an' I don't
thank him none for it, I know _that_."

"You--" said Mrs. Lathrop, mildly.

"I ain't sure," said Miss Clegg. "Elijah strikes me as more thorns than
roses this night. I never was one to feel a longin' for new experiences,
an' I've had too many to-day, as he'll very soon learn to his sorrow
when he comes home to-night."

CHAPTER IX

THE FAR EASTERN TROPICS

"You look--" said Mrs. Lathrop, solicitously, one afternoon, when Susan
Clegg had come around by the gate to enjoy a spell of mutual sitting and
knitting.

"Well, I am," confessed Susan, unrolling her ball and drawing a long
breath; "I may tell you in confidence, Mrs. Lathrop, as I really never
was more so. What with havin' to look after Elijah's washin' an' his
mendin' an' his cookin' an' his room, an' what with holdin' down his new
ideas an' explainin' to people as he did n't mean what it sounds like
when I ain't been able to hold 'em down, I do get pretty well wore out.
I can see as Mr. Kimball sees how Elijah is wearin' on me for he gives
me a chair whenever I go in there now an' that just shows how anxious
he is for me to rest when I can, but it really ain't altogether Elijah's
fault for the way my back aches to-day, for I got this ache in a way as
you could n't possibly understand, Mrs. Lathrop, for I got it from
sittin' up readin' a book last night as you or any ordinary person would
of gone to sleep on the second page of an' slept clear through to the
index; but I was built different from you an' ordinary persons, Mrs.
Lathrop, an' if I'd thanked the Lord as much as I'd ought to for that
I'd never have had time to do nothin' else in _this_ world."

"What--" asked Mrs. Lathrop, with interest.

"It was a book," said her friend, beginning to knit assiduously--"a book
as a boy he went to school with sent Mr. Fisher with a postal card,
sayin' as every American man 'd ought to read it thoughtfully. Mrs.
Fisher took it out of the post office an' read the postal card, an' she
said right off as she did n't approve of Mr. Fisher's reading books as
every man ought to know, so she let me have it to bring home an' read
ti