ghty
mad at him if I thought as he was half as glad to go as I am to get rid
of him. I don't like the ways of a man in the house, Mrs. Lathrop,--they
seem to act like they thought you enjoyed havin' 'em around. I can't see
where they ever got the idea in the first place, but it certainly does
seem to stick by 'em most wonderful."

"There--" said Mrs. Lathrop.

Susan turned her head.

"Yes, that's him comin'," she said; "well, now I must go, Mrs. Lathrop.
I'll come over to-morrow an' tell you when I'm free of him, bag an'
baggage."

"Yes," said Mrs. Lathrop, "I--"

"Yes, I do, too," said Miss Clegg, "but you see I said for three months
an' the three months ain't up till to-morrow."

CHAPTER XIX

EXIT THE MAN OUT OF SUSAN CLEGG'S HOUSE

"Well, Mrs. Lathrop," said Miss Clegg, coming over the evening after,
weary but triumphant, "Elijah is gone an' I tell you I'll never be too
tender-hearted for my own good again. I won't say but what it was me an'
nobody else as brought him down on my own head, but I must fully an'
freely state as it's certainly been me an' no one else as has had to
hold my own head up under him. An' he _has_ been a load!

"Why, Mrs. Lathrop, do you know that man's stockin's alone has took me
about one mornin' a week, an' as to buttons--well, I never knew a editor
could bu'st 'em off so fast. An' as to puttin' away what he took off, or
foldin' back things into the drawer where they belongs, why, a monkey
swingin' upside down by his tail is busy carefully keepin' house
compared to Elijah Doxey.

"I never see such a man afore! If Hiram's anythin' like him I don't
blame Lucy for battin' him about as she does. I did n't suppose such
ways could be lived with in oneself. An' that table where he wrote!
Well! I tell you I've got it cleared off to-night an' my clean curtains
folded off on it, an' no man never sets foot on it again, I can tell you
_that_.

"I won't say as it wa'n't a little tryin' gettin' him off to-day an' I
did feel to feel real sober while I was hangin' his mattress back to the
rafters in the attic, but when I remembered as I'd never see them
bedclothes kicked out at the foot again I cheered up amazin'. Mrs. Brown
come in just afore supper an' she seemed to think it was some queer as I
was n't goin' to miss Elijah, but I told her she did n't know me. 'Mrs.
Brown,' I says, 'your son was a doctor an' you can't be expected to
know what it is to board a editor, so once bit, soo