Miss Clegg the next Monday
afternoon, "I ain't goin' to stay here so late but what I go home in
time to make Elijah something hot an' comfortin' for supper to-night. I
ain't any one to take sides, but I will say that my heart has gone out
to that poor young man ever since I was down in the square this mornin'.
I felt to be real glad as he'd took to-day to go up to the city, for I
must say I'd of felt more'n a little sorry for him if he'd heard folks
expressin' their opinion about his first paper."

"Did he--" asked Mrs. Lathrop.

"Yes, he went to-day," said Miss Clegg. "He went on the early train an'
one of the joys of havin' a man in the house was as I had to be up
bright an' early to get him his breakfast. I must say I never thought
about his wantin' early breakfast when I agreed to take him, but I'm not
one to refuse to feed even a editor, so I cooked him cakes just the same
as I would any one else."

"Why--" asked Mrs. Lathrop.

"Well, I guess maybe he heard things yesterday as made him feel as it'd
be just as well to let folks have time to sizzle down some afore they
looked on his bright an' shinin' face again. I tell you what, Mrs.
Lathrop, I can see as runnin' a newspaper ain't an easy thing an' the
town is really so up in arms to-day, that I really would of made waffles
for Elijah to eat instead of just plain cakes, if I'd knowed when he got
up how mad every one was at him. I can see since I've been down town
to-day as the square was n't likely to have been no bed of roses for him
yesterday. The whole community is mad as hornets over the paper. Why, I
never see folks so mad over nothin' before. Nobody likes his puttin' his
own name right under the paper's, an' Dr. Brown says the editor belongs
on the inside, anyhow. Dr. Brown's most _awful_ mad 'cause Elijah's put
his item right in with the advertisement of Lydia Finkham, an' he says
he ain't nothin' as pretends to cure anythin' or everybody. He says he's
a regular doctor as you have to take regular chances with an' he feels
like suin' Elijah for slander. Gran'ma Mullins is mad, too, 'cause she
was put in the personals an' Elijah went an' called her the 'Nestor of
the crick,' without never so much as askin' by her leave. She says she
ain't never done nothin' with the crick, an' if she ever nested anywhere
it was in her own owned an' mortgaged house. Hiram says he'll punch
Elijah if he ever refers to his mother's nestin' again, an' I guess
Hiram feels kind o