arden grow. So I shall keep on talkin' as usual, but I shall
hold Elijah out o' print an' so keep the country safe."

"I--" said Mrs. Lathrop.

"Oh, the paper'll do just as well," said Susan; "he's goin' to print one
sheet as comes all printed from the city every week an' he says that'll
put new zest in the thing. It'll be a great deal better to get the zest
that way than to get it exposin'. Zest is suthin' as is always safest a
good ways off. Elijah saw that, too, afore he got done last night, for
in his hitchin' about he hitched over the edge o' the piazza in the
end."

"Did--" cried Mrs. Lathrop.

"Well, no," said Miss Clegg. "But he tore a lot of things an' smashed a
rose bush, but I did n't care about that. I just told him to leave 'em
on a chair this mornin' an' I'd sew 'em all up again, an' I done it, an'
as to the rose bush, I'll have him get another an' give it to me for a
present the next time I go to the city to pick it out myself."

CHAPTER XV

THE TRIAL OF A SICK MAN IN THE HOUSE

"Well, where--" began Mrs. Lathrop in a tone of real pleasure at seeing
Miss Clegg come into her kitchen one afternoon a few days after.

Miss Clegg dropped into a chair.

"Well, I _have_ got trouble now!" she announced abruptly, "Elijah's
sick!"

"Eli--" cried Mrs. Lathrop.

"--Jah," finished Susan. "Yes, Mrs. Lathrop, Elijah's sick! He was sick
all night an' all this mornin', an' I may in confidence remark as I hope
this'll be a lesson to him to never do it again, for I've got a feelin'
in my legs as 'll bear me out in lettin' him or any one else die afore
I'll ever work again like I've worked to-day an' last night."

"Why, what--"

"Did n't you see young Dr. Brown?"

"No, I--"

"Yes, I supposed so," said Susan, resignedly; "I know your ways, Mrs.
Lathrop, an' I never look for any other ways in you. It's good as I
don't, for if I did I'd be blind from lookin' an' not seein'. I know
you, Mrs. Lathrop, an' I know your ways, an' I realize to the full how
different they are from me an' my ways, but a friend is a friend an'
what can't be endured has got to be cured, so I come to tell you about
Elijah just the same as I do anythin' else as is easy heard."

"Is--" asked Mrs. Lathrop.

"No, he is n't. That is, he was n't when I come out, but he had his pen
an' said he was goin' to write a editorial sittin' up in bed. He can't
get out of bed on a'count of the sheet, but 'Liza Em'ly's there if he
wants anyth