throp shifted her elbows a little; Susan withdrew at once from
the fence.

"I must go in," she said, "to-morrow is goin' to be a more 'n full day.
There's Polly's weddin' an' then in the evenin' Mr. Weskin is comin' up.
You needn't look surprised, Mrs. Lathrop, because I've thought the
subject over up an' down an' hind end foremost an' there ain't nothin'
left for me to do. I can't sell nothin' else an' I've got to have money,
so I'm goin' to let go of one of those bonds as father left me. There
ain't no way out of it; I told Mr. Weskin I'd expect him at sharp eight
on sharp business an' he'll come. An' I must go as a consequence. Good
night."

* * * * *

Polly Allen's wedding took place the next day, and Mrs. Lathrop came
out on her front piazza about half past five to wait for her share in
the event.

The sight of Mrs. Brown going by with her head bound up in a white
cloth, accompanied by Gran'ma Mullins with both hands similarly treated,
was the first inkling the stay-at-home had that strange doings had been
lately done.

Susan came next and Susan was a sight!

Not only did her ears stand up with a size and conspicuousness never
inherited from either her father or her mother, but also her right eye
was completely closed and she walked lame.

"The Lord have mercy!" cried Mrs. Lathrop, when the full force of her
friend's affliction effected its complete entrance into her
brain,--"Why, Susan, what--"

"Mrs. Lathrop," said Miss Clegg, "all I can say is I come out better
than the most of 'em, an' if you could see Sam Duruy or Mr. Kimball or
the minister you'd know I spoke the truth. The deacon an' Polly is both
in bed an' can't see how each other looks, an' them as has a eye is
goin' to tend them as can't see at all, an' God help 'em all if young
Dr. Brown an' the mud run dry!" with which pious ejaculation Susan
painfully mounted the steps and sat down with exceeding gentleness upon
a chair.

Mrs. Lathrop stared at her in dumb and wholly bewildered amazement.
After a while Miss Clegg continued.

"It was all the deacon's fault. Him an' Polly was so dead set on bein'
fashionable an' bein' a contrast to Hiram an' Lucy, an' I hope to-night
as they lay there all puffed up as they'll reflect on their folly an'
think a little on how the rest of us as didn't care rhyme or reason for
folly is got no choice but to puff up, too. Mrs. Jilkins is awful mad;
she says Mr. Jilkins wanted to we