uld to make the paper a success for three months. I told him as it
was trustin' in the dark, for Elijah was a unknown quantity to me an' I
never did like the idea of a man around my nice, clean house, but I said
if he'd name the Meadville items the 'Mud Spatters' an' so get even for
our feelin's last week I'd do my part by feedin' him an' makin' up his
bed mornin's. Mr. Kimball said I showed as my heart an' my brains was
both in the right place, an' then he got up an' shook hands an' told me
as he would in confidence remark as he expected to make a very good
thing all round for he was gettin' the printin' press awful cheap and
Elijah likewise."

"When--?" asked Mrs. Lathrop.

"Next Wednesday. Elijah's comin' up freight with the printin' press.
Mr. Kimball says he suggested that himself. He says it cuts two birds
with one knife for it makes it look as if the printin' press was extra
fine instead of second-hand, an' it gets Elijah here for nothin'."

"Dear--" said Mrs. Lathrop.

"I would, too," said Miss Clegg, "only you see I have n't got time. I
ought not to be here now. I ought to be over gettin' his room ready an'
takin' out the little comforts. As far as my order of thinkin' goes,
little comforts is lost on men, Mrs. Lathrop, they always trip over them
an' smash them in the dark."

CHAPTER II

ELIJAH DOXEY AND HIS LOCKED BOX

"Well," suggested Mrs. Lathrop one pleasant Saturday morning, a few days
later, when she and her friend met at the fence. Miss Clegg looked
slightly fretted and more than slightly warm, for she had been giving
her garden an uncommonly vigorous weeding on account of an uncommonly
vigorous shower which had fallen the afternoon before. The weeding had
been so strenuous that Miss Clegg was quite disposed to stop and rest,
and as she joined her neighbor and read the keen interest that never
failed to glow in the latter's eyes, her own expression softened
slightly and she took up her end of the conversation with her customary
capability at giving forth.

"I don't know," she began, "an' Mr. Kimball don't know either. Elijah
was tellin' me all about it last night. He _is_ a trouble, Mrs. Lathrop,
but I don't know but what it pays to have a man around when you can have
them to talk to like I have him. Of course a new broom sweeps clean an'
I've no intention of supposin' that Elijah will ever keep on coverin'
his soap an' scrapin' his feet long, but so far so good, an' last night
it was