Mrs. Lathrop, I tell you
I _was_ mad then. I don't know as I ever was madder than I was then. I
was so mad that I can't tell you how mad I was. The bat held on by
diggin' in like he thought I wanted to get him off, an' I pulled at him
so hard that I can't in conscience be surprised much over his takin'
that view of it. Well, in the end I had to take all my hairpins out
first an' then sort of skin him out of my hair lengthways, which,
whatever you may think about it, Mrs. Lathrop, is far from bein' funny
along afore dawn on a day as you 've begun at three thinkin' as it was
five."

"Susan!" ejaculated Mrs. Lathrop; "don't--"

"No, I'll have some when I get home. I like mine better than yours
anyway. Now you've made me forget where I was in my story."

"You--" said Mrs. Lathrop.

"Oh yes, I remember now. Well, I was too put out at first to notice what
the bat did after I got him out o' my head, but when I went upstairs I
found him circlin' everywhere in a way as took every bit of home feelin'
out of the house an' I just saw that I'd have no peace till I could be
alone with Elijah again. So I got up an' got a broom an' went a battin'
for all I was worth. Well, Mrs. Lathrop, you can believe me or not just
as you please, but for one solid hour I run freely an' gayly up an' down
an' over an' under my own house after that bat. I never see nothin' like
that bat before or behind. He just sort of sailed here an' there an'
everywhere, an' wherever he sailed smoothly an' easily there was me
runnin' after him with the broom, whackin' at him every chance I got. We
was upstairs, we was downstairs, we was in the wood shed an' out of the
wood shed, we was under the kitchen table, we was over father's picture
on the mantel--we was everywhere, me an' that bat. Then all of a sudden
he disappeared completely an' I sit down in the rockin'-chair to puff
an' rest. Elijah slept till most eight an' I was so tired I let him
sleep although I never was one to approve of any man's sleepin', but
before he woke something worse than a bat come down on me, an' that was
Mrs. Sweet's cousin, Jerusha Dodd. You know Jerusha Dodd, Mrs. Lathrop,
an' so do I, an' so does everybody an' as far as my observation 's
extended bats is wise men bringin' their gifts from afar to visit you
compared to Jerusha Dodd when she arrives in the early mornin'. I would
n't never have gone to the door only she stepped up on the drain-pipe
first an' looked in an' saw me ther