real pleasant to hear the rain an' him together tellin' how much
trouble they're havin', owin' to Hiram's bein' too energetic wringin'
the handle of the printin' press an' then to think as when he was all
done talkin' it would be him an' not me as in common decency would have
to go out in the wet to padlock the chickens. Seems, Mrs. Lathrop, as
they're really havin' no end o' trouble over the new paper an' Elijah's
real put out. He says Hiram had a idea as the more the speed the better
the paper an' was just wringin' for dear life, an' the first thing he
knew the first issue begin to slide a little cornerways an' slid off
into a crank as Elijah never knowed was there, an' him an' Mr. Kimball
spent the whole of yesterday runnin' around like mad an' no way to fix
it. As a consequence Elijah's very much afraid as there'll be no paper
this week an' it's too bad, for every one is in town spendin' the day
an' waitin' to take it home with them. Young Dr. Brown is goin' to feel
just awful 'cause he'd bought twenty-five papers to mail to all his
college class. There was goin' to be a item about him, an' Mrs. Brown
says it was goin' to be a good one for she fed Elijah mince pie while he
made his notes for it an' had Amelia play on her guitar, too."

"What do you--?" began Mrs. Lathrop.

"Well, I can't say as I really know _what_ to think of him just yet. I
never see such a young man afore. He has some very curious ways, Mrs.
Lathrop, ways as make me feel that I can't tell you positively what I
do think. Now yesterday was the first day as I knowed he'd be gone for
long, so I took it to go through all his things, an' do you know, away
down at the bottom of one of his trunks I found a box as was locked an'
no key anywhere. Well, Mrs. Lathrop, I hunted, an' I hunted, an' I
hunted, an' I couldn't find that key a _tall_. I never had any thin' of
that kind in my house afore an' of course I ain't goin' to give up
without a good deal more lookin', but if I can't find that key it'll
prove beyond a shadow of a doubt as Elijah Doxey ain't of a trustin'
nature an' if that's true I don't know how I ever _will_ be able to get
along with him. A trustin' nature is one thing to have around an' a
distrustin' nature is another thing, an' I can tell you that there's
somethin' about feelin' as you ain't trusted as makes me take my hands
right out of my bread dough an' go straight upstairs to begin lookin'
for that key again. The more I hunt the wilder