e road,
where they will be glad to have you." And down the road he went to Mrs.
Carson's. I am sorry to say that he sold her a "Flora and Fauna" before
he went to bed that night.

We were much amused at the termination of this affair, and I became, if
possible, a still greater admirer of Euphemia's talents for management.
But we both agreed that it would not do to keep up the sign any longer.
We could not tell when the irate driver might not pounce down upon us
with a customer.

"But I hate to take it down," said Euphemia; "it looks so much like a
surrender."

"Do not trouble yourself," said I. "I have an idea."

The next morning I went down to Danny Carson's little shop,--he was
a wheelwright as well as a farmer,--and I got from him two pots of
paint--one black and one white--and some brushes. I took down our sign,
and painted out the old lettering, and, instead of it, I painted, in
bold and somewhat regular characters, new names for our tavern.

On one side of the sign I painted:

"SOAP-MAKER'S
AND
BOOK-BINDER'S
HOTEL."

And on the other side:

"UPHOLSTERERS'
AND
DENTISTS'
HOUSE."

"Now then," I said, "I don't believe any of those people will be
traveling along the road while we are here, or, at any rate, they won't
want to stop."

We admired this sign very much, and sat on the piazza, that afternoon,
to see how it would strike Bill, as he passed by. It seemed to strike
him pretty hard, for he gazed with all his eyes at one side of it, as he
approached, and then, as he passed it, he actually pulled up to read the
other side.

"All right!" he called out, as he drove off. "All right! All right!"

Euphemia didn't like the way he said "all right." It seemed to her, she
said, as if he intended to do something which would be all right for
him, but not at all so for us. I saw she was nervous about it, for that
evening she began to ask me questions about the traveling propensities
of soap-makers, upholsterers, and dentists.

"Do not think anything more about that, my dear," I said. "I will take
the sign down in the morning. We are here to enjoy ourselves, and not to
be worried."

"And yet," said she, "it would worry me to think that that driver
frightened us into taking down the sign. I tell you what I wish you
would do. Paint out those names, and let me make a sign. Then I promise
you I will not be worried."

The next day, therefore, I