I get, for it's a very
small box for a man to keep locked, an' it ain't his money or jewelry
for it don't rattle when you shake it. It's too bad for me to feel so
because in most other ways he's a very nice young man, although I will
say as sunset is midnight compared to his hair."

"Do--" began Mrs. Lathrop.

"Then too, he said yesterday," Miss Clegg continued, "as he wanted it
distinctly understood as his things was never to be touched by no one
an' I told him as he could freely an' frankly rely on me. Now that's
goin' to make it a great deal more work to hunt for that key from now
on. An' I don't like to have it made any harder work to find a thing, as
I have n't found yet a _tall_."

"Wh--" said Mrs. Lathrop.

"Not me," said Miss Clegg; "I ain't got any give-up in me. I'll keep on
until I find it if I have to board Elijah Doxey till he dies or till I
drop dead in my huntin' tracks. But I can see that my feelin' towards
him is n't goin' to be what it might of been if he'd been frank an'
open with me as I am with him an' every one else. He seems so frank an'
open, too--in other ways than that box. He read his editorial aloud
night afore last an' I must say it showed a real good disposition for he
even wished the president well although he said as he knowed he was
sometimes goin' to be obliged to maybe be a little bit hard on him. He
said as plain speakin' an' to the purpose 'd be the very breath an'
blast of the _Megaphone_ an' he should found it on truth, honor an' the
great American people, an' carry Judge Fitch to congress on them lines.
I thought as Judge Fitch would object to goin' to congress on any lines
after all he's said about what he thought of congress in public, but
Elijah says a new paper must have a standard, an' he asked Judge Fitch
if he minded being nailed to ours, an' the judge said he did n't mind
nothin' these degenerate days, so Elijah just up with him."

"Did you--" asked Mrs. Lathrop.

"See Mrs. Macy?--yes, I see her in the square yesterday noon. She was
just back from Meadville. She says the editor of the _Meadville Mixture_
is awful bitter over our havin' a paper of our own, an' says he'll cross
tinfoils with Elijah any day. I told Elijah what she said last night,
but Elijah did n't mind. I hoped tellin' him'd take his appetite away,
but he ate eleven biscuits just the same. That reminds me as he's comin'
home to dinner to-day, an' I ought to be goin' in."

"Goo--" said Mrs. Lathrop.