ale as any one could o' foreseen if they went an'
married Hiram Mullins. Any one might of easy knowed as Lucy Dill could
n't no more enjoy Hiram Mullins than a cat could enjoy swimmin' lessons,
but she _would_ have him, an' she _had_ to have him, an' now she's got
him--so help her eternity to come."

"Did she--" questioned Mrs. Lathrop.

"No," said Miss Clegg, "she ain't been married quite long enough for
that yet; she's only been married long enough to come out strong an'
bitter as to blamin' Gran'ma Mullins. I will say this for Lucy, Mrs.
Lathrop, an' that is that a fairer thing than blamin' Gran'ma Mullins
for Hiram could n't be expected of whoever married Hiram, for it stands
to reason as no one as had brains could marry Hiram an' not want to
begin blamin' his mother five minutes after. Gran'ma Mullins never did
seem able to look at Hiram with a impartial eye, an' Lucy says as it
beats all kind of eyes the way she looks at him since he's got married.
Why, Lucy says it's most made her lose faith in her Bible--the way she
feels about Gran'ma Mullins. She says she's got a feelin' towards
Gran'ma Mullins as she never knowed could be in a woman. She says she's
come to where she just cannot see what Ruth ever stuck to Naomi for when
the husband was dead an' Naomi disposed to leave, too. She says if
anythin' was to happen to Hiram she'd never be fool enough to hang onto
Gran'ma Mullins. She sat down an' told me all about their goin' to town
last week. She says she nigh to went mad. They started to go to the city
just for a day's shoppin' an' she says it was up by the alarm clock at
four an' breakfast at six for fear of missin' the nine-o'clock train an'
then if Gran'ma Mullins did n't lose her little black bead bag with her
weddin' ring an' the size of Hiram's foot an' eighty-five cents in it,
so they could n't get him no bargain socks after all! All they could do
was to buy the safety razor, an' when they got home with that there was
n't no blade in it, an' they had to go way back to town next day. Come
to find out the blade was in the box all the time, done up in the
directions, only Hiram never read the directions, 'cause he said as it's
a well-known fact as you can't cut yourself with a safety razor whatever
you do.

"Well, Lucy says it's for that sort of doin's as she left her happy home
an' her razor-stroppin' father, an' she says the billin' an' cooin' of
Gran'ma Mullins over Hiram is enough to make a wedded wife