outh in a feeble attempt to rally her forces,
but long before they were rallied Susan was off again:

"I don't know, I'm sure, whether what I said to Mr. Kimball in the end
was wise or not. I did n't say right out as I would, but I said I would
maybe for a little while. I thought a little while would give me the
inside track of what a long while would be pretty sure to mean. I don't
know as it was a good thing to do but it's done now, so help me Heaven;
an' if I can't stand him I always stand by my word, so he'll get three
months' board anyhow an' I'll learn a little of what it would mean to
have a man in the house."

"A man in--" cried Mrs. Lathrop, recovering herself sufficiently to
illustrate her mental attitude by what in her case always answered the
purposes of a start.

"That's what I said," said Susan, "an' havin' said it Mr. Kimball can
rely on Elijah Doxey's bein' sure to get it now."

"Eli--" cried Mrs. Lathrop, again upheaved.

"Elijah Doxey," repeated Susan. "That's his name. I ain't surprised over
your bein' surprised, Mrs. Lathrop, 'cause I was all dumb did up myself
at first. I never was more dumb or more did up since I was a baby, but
after the way as Mr. Kimball sprung shock after shock on me last night I
got so paralyzed in the end that his name cut very little figger beside
our havin' a newspaper of our own, right here in our midst, an' me
havin' the editor to board an' him bein' Mr. Kimball's nephew, an' Mr.
Kimball havin' a nephew as was a editor, an' Mr. Kimball's never havin'
seen fit to mention the fact to any of us in all these many years as
we've been friends on an' off an' us always buyin' from him whenever we
was n't more friends with Mr. Dill."

"I nev--" said Mrs. Lathrop.

"No, nor no one else ever heard of him neither. The first of it all was
when he came up last night to see would I board him, an' of course when
I understood as it was me as was goin' to have to take him in I never
rested till I knowed hide an' hair of who I was to take in down to the
last button on Job's coat."

"And wh--" asked Mrs. Lathrop.

"Well, I'll tell you all I found out myself; an' I tell you I worked
hard findin' it out too, for Mr. Kimball is no windmill to pump when it
comes to where he gets relations from. Seems, Mrs. Lathrop, as he had a
sister though as married a Doxey an' that's the why of Elijah Doxey.
Seems Elijah is so smart that he'll be offered a place on one of the
biggest city papers in