use it's a place a good long ways off to send poor
relations after good salaries. The man who wrote the book said a man did
n't need to know hardly anythin' to go there an' I must say from what I
see of the few who have come back they don't look like they spent much
spare time studyin' up while they was in the country."

Susan stopped knitting suddenly and stuck her needles into the ball.

"I've got to go home," she said. "I've just remembered as I forgot to
fill the tea-kettle. Well, Mrs. Lathrop, we've had a nice talk about our
foreign possessions an' all I can say in the end is as that whole book
made me feel just like we'd all ought to get to feel as quick as we can.
Lots of things in this world might be better only the people that could
change 'em don't often feel inclined that way, an' the people who'd
like to have a change ain't the ones as have got any say. If I was a
Philippine I'd want a Chinaman to do my work an' I'd feel pretty mad
that folks as had so many niggers an' Italians that they did n't need
Chinamen should say I could n't have 'em neither. I'd feel as if I
knowed what was best for me an' I would n't thank a lot of men in
another part of the world for sittin' down on my ideas. However, there's
one thing that comforted me very much in the book. All the countries
around _is_ run, an' pretty well run too, by other countries an' if the
Philippines get too awful tired of being badly run by us all those of
'em as know anythin' can easy paddle across to some of them well run
countries in the front half of the book to live, an' as for the rest--"

Susan stopped short. Mrs. Lathrop was sound asleep!

CHAPTER X

THE EVILS OF DELAYED DECEASE

"I ain't been doin' my duty by Mrs. Macy lately," said Susan Clegg to
Mrs. Lathrop; "I declare to goodness I've been so did up with the garden
an' Elijah an' house cleanin' this last two weeks that I don't believe
I've even thought of the other side of the crick since I begun. I ain't
seen Mrs. Macy either an' maybe that's one reason why I ain't done
nothin' about her, but it ain't surprisin' as I ain't seen her for she
ain't been here--she's been over in Meadville stayin' with the Lupeys,
an' I must say I'm right put out with Elijah for not puttin' it in the
paper so I'd of knowed it afore. The idea of Mrs. Macy bein' in
Meadville for over a week an' me not hearin' of it is a thing as makes
me feel as maybe when Gabriel blows his horn I'll just merely sit up