eep sheddin' our skins the same
as snakes an' that that's really what makes our clothes need washin' so
often. She said the moral was plain as by the time the sheet'd need
washin' Elijah would shed it anyhow. I see the p'int o' what she said
an' I felt to agree, but while we was talkin' Mrs. Sweet come in an' her
view was all different. She said as Elijah would find that sheet a most
awful drag on him an' to her order o' thinkin' he'd ought to go down to
where Mr. Kimball makes his dried apples an' steam loose in the vat. She
says he can steam out very fast an' Mr. Kimball bein' his uncle 'll
naturally let him sit in the vat for nothin'."

"What--" asked Mrs. Lathrop.

"Well, I don't know," said Susan; "Lucy come in while we was sittin'
there an' she said her view'd be for me just to take a firm hold of the
sheet an' walk straight out of the room without a so much as 'by your
leave' to Elijah, but I'd be afraid of tearin' the sheet if I did that
way. An' then Gran'ma Mullins came an' her view was as I'd best sit an'
sop Elijah with a sponge, which just shows why Hiram is so tore in two
between such a mother an' such a wife's views."

"What--" asked Mrs. Lathrop again.

"Well, Elijah was writin' a editorial when I left an' 'Liza Em'ly was
lookin' at him an' sighin' to talk an' I come over to tell you all about
it."

Just here a piercing scream was heard from across the way.

"My--" ejaculated Mrs. Lathrop.

Susan sprang to her feet and ran to the door; as she opened it Eliza
Emily was seen flying down the Clegg steps.

"What is it?" screamed Miss Clegg from Mrs. Lathrop's steps.

"Elijah dropped his pen," screamed Eliza Emily in reply, "an' when he
reached for it he fell out o' bed an' tore loose."

"Did he tear the sheet any?"

"No, but he thinks he's tore himself."

Miss Clegg began to walk rapidly towards her own house.

"You can see I've got to go," she called back to her friend over her
shoulder; "this is what it is to have a man livin' in your house, Mrs.
Lathrop."

CHAPTER XVI

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

As June wore on it became more and more apparent that Elijah wore on
Miss Clegg. She grew less and less mild towards his shortcomings and
more and more severe as to the same.

"He's only--" Mrs. Lathrop attempted to explain to her.

"I don't care if he is," she replied, "it says in the Bible as a man is
a man for all that an' I never was one to go against the Bible even if I
ain't ne