you know Drusilla Cobb! You know what she was afore
she left here, an' Mrs. Macy says ten years ain't altered her a _tall_.
Whenever Drusilla was glad to see any one she always had a reason, an'
Mrs. Macy says it speaks loud for how clean used up she was over her
shoes that she never remembered that way of Drusilla's. Drusilla never
saw no one on the street unless she had a reason, an' if she had a
reason it was Heaven help them as Drusilla saw on the street.

"So now she saw Mrs. Macy an' asked her right home to lunch with her,
an' Mrs. Macy very gladly went. She says no words can tell how lively
an' pleasant Drusilla was, an' she felt to be glad she met her all the
way home. She says Drusilla has a very nice home an' a thin husband an'
three very thin boys. She says Drusilla is the only fat one in the
family."

Susan paused and drew a long breath.

Mrs. Lathrop adjusted herself in a new position.

"Well, Mrs. Lathrop, now's where the duck comes in. The duck was
Drusilla's reason, an' Mrs. Macy's next trial. Mrs. Macy says if any one
had told her as she was to go to town for shoes an' bring back a duck,
or be did in one day first by the minister an' next by Drusilla Cobb,
she'd take her Bible oath as whoever said it was lyin', but so it was."

"Is--" asked Mrs. Lathrop.

"Yes," said Miss Clegg, "it's the same one. An' this is its why as told
by Mrs. Macy to Gran'ma Mullins an' me." She paused and drew a still
longer breath. "Seems, Mrs. Lathrop, as Drusilla's husband had got a
friend as goes huntin' with a doctor. Seems he found four little
red-headed things in a nest of reeds an' took one an' asked the doctor
what it was. Seems the doctor said as he thought as it was a
golden-headed oriole but the friend thought as it was a mud hen. So he
give it to Drusilla's youngest boy to raise in a flat for his birthday.
Well, Mrs. Macy says bein' raised in a flat was surely most new to the
animal as very soon turned out to be a duck. Seems it snapped at all the
black spots in the carpets for bugs an' when they put it in the bath-tub
to swim it would n't swim but just kept diving for the hole in the
bottom. Seems they had a most lively time with it an' it run after 'em
everywhere an' snapped at their shoe-buttons an' squawked nights, an'
when Drusilla see Mrs. Macy she thought right off as she could give her
the duck to take home with her 'cause she lived in the country. So that
was how Mrs. Macy come to be asked to take d