tisfaction when a man leaves your house, Mrs. Lathrop, to
know as he'll be bound to wish himself back there many an' many time."

"What--" asked Mrs. Lathrop.

"Oh, I'll find plenty to do," said Susan Clegg, "it ain't made a mite of
difference in my life. I shall go on livin' just the same as ever.
Nothin's changed for me just because for three months I had a man in
the house. I ain't even altered my general views o' men any, for land
knows Elijah wa'n't so different from the rest of them that he could
teach me much as is new. I ain't never intended to get married anyway,
so he ain't destroyed my ideals none, an' I told Mr. Kimball when I took
him as I'd agree to keep him three months an' I would n't agree for love
or money to keep him any longer, an' I've kept him for three months an'
no love or money could of made me keep him a day longer."

"Did n't you--" asked Mrs. Lathrop.

"Why, yes, I liked him," said Susan, "there were spots durin' the time
when I felt to be real fond of him, but laws, that did n't make me want
to have him around any more than I had to. But you know as well as I do
that a woman can like a man very much an' still be happiest when she
ain't got him on her hands to fuss with. I was n't built to fuss, Mrs.
Lathrop, as you know to your cost, for if I had been I'd of been over
here two days a week tidyin' up out of pure friendship, for the last
twenty years. But no, I ain't like that--never was an' never will
be--an' I ain't one to go pitchin' my life hither an' yon an' dancin'
wildly first on one leg an' then the other from dawn to dusk for other
people. Elijah's come an' Elijah's gone an' his mattress is hung back to
the rafter in the attic an' his sulphur candle is all bought to burn
to-morrow an' when that's over an' the smell's over too I shall look to
settle down an' not have nothin' more to upset my days an' nights till
your time comes, Mrs. Lathrop, an' I hope to goodness as it won't come
in the night, for boardin' a editor has put me all at outs with night
work."

"I--" said Mrs. Lathrop.

"Well, if you say so, I'll believe it," said Miss Clegg; "for I will say
this for you, Mrs. Lathrop, an' that is as with all your faults you've
never yet told me nothin' as I've found out from others afterwards was
n't true."

_A Masterpiece of Native Humor_

SUSAN CLEGG AND HER

FRIEND MRS. LATHROP

By ANNE WARNER

Author of "A Woman's Will," etc.

With Frontispiece. 227 pages. 1