h's ideas pretty
bright. But my mind's taken a new turn on his subjeck from what he said
at dinner, an' I will admit, Mrs. Lathrop, as I see now as I misjudged
him in one way, for he come an' asked me while I was washin' up if I
knowed any way to open a locked box without a key, for he could n't find
the key to his flute box nowhere, an' when he was a little nervous
nights he always wore it off practisin' on his flute. Well, Mrs.
Lathrop, you can maybe imagine as learnin' as there was a flute in that
box an' the key lost, an' him in the habit of playin' that flute nights,
altered my views more 'n a little, an' I can tell you that I had to
think pretty fast afore answerin' him. While I was thinkin' he said he
had n't played since he was here, an' he was gettin' so wild to play he
thought the best way would be to maybe pry the lock open. I see then as
I'd got to come out firm an' I said I'd never consent to no young man
in my house, spoilin' a good box like that an' maybe a fine flute too,
just because he had n't got a little patience. He said I was right about
its being a fine flute, an' he was just achin' to hear it an' blow it. I
told him to let me hunt an' maybe I'd find the key, an' so he went off
some soothed, an' now the Lord have mercy on you an' me, for Elijah
Doxey never will from this day on. Will you only think of him bein'
nervous an' playin' nights! It'll be worse than a tree-toad an' you know
what a tree-toad is, Mrs. Lathrop,--I declare to goodness if Elijah acts
like a tree-toad he'll drive me stark, ravin' mad."

"Ca--" suggested Mrs. Lathrop.

"I don't see how I can," said Miss Clegg, dubiously. "I shall do my
best, but, oh my, a young man as is a editor an' has red hair an' a
flute is awful uncertain to count on. I almost wish I had n't took him."

"Why--" asked Mrs. Lathrop.

"I can't now," said Miss Clegg, "the arrangements of this world is
dreadful hard on women. It's very easy to take a man into your house but
once a woman has done it an' the man's settled, nobody but a undertaker
can get him out in any way as is respectable accordin' to my order of
thinkin'."

"But you--" suggested Mrs. Lathrop, comfortingly.

"I know, but even three months is a long time," said Miss Clegg, "an'
he's begun to leave his soap uncovered already, an' oh my heavens alive,
how am I ever goin' to stand that flute!"

CHAPTER III

THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE NEWSPAPER

"I'll tell you what, Mrs. Lathrop," said