Let me alone
till I've finished. His wife, when she was alive, she was proud, too.
And his daughter, Alicia, she's eight year old now, and by and by she'll
be grown up into a high-toned young woman. Well, Heman is fur-sighted,
and I s'pose likely he's thinkin' of the days when there'll be young
rich fellers--senators and--and--well, counts and lords, maybe--cruisin'
down here courtin' her. By that time the Whittaker place'll be a worse
disgrace than 'tis now. I presume he don't want those swells to sit on
his front piazza and see the crows buildin' nests in the ruins acrost
the road. So--"

"Crows! Did you ever see a crow build a nest in a house? I never did!"

"Oh, belay! Crows or canary birds, what difference does it make?
SOMETHIN' 'll nest there, if it's only A'nt Sophrony Hallett's hens.
So Heman he writes to the board, askin' if the taxes is paid, if we've
heard any reason why they ain't paid, and what we're goin' to do about
it. If there's a sale for taxes he wants to be fust bidder. Then, when
the place is his, he can tear down or rebuild, just as he sees fit.
See?"

"Yes, I see. Well, I feel about that the way Joe Dimick felt when he
heard the doctor had told Elviry Pepper she must stop singin' in
the choir or lose her voice altogether. 'Whichever happens 'll be an
improvement,' says Cap'n Joe; and whatever Heman does 'll help the
Whittaker place. What did you decide at the meetin'?"

"Nothin'. We can't decide yet. We ain't sure about the law and we want
to wait a spell, anyhow. But I know how 'twill end: Atkins 'll get the
place. He always gets what he wants, Heman does."

Bailey turned and looked back at the old house, forlorn amidst
its huddle of blackberry briers and weeds, and with the ubiquitous
"silver-leaf" saplings springing up in clusters everywhere about it and
closing in on its defenseless walls like squads of victorious soldiery
making the final charge upon a conquered fort.

"Well," sighed Mr. Bangs, "so that 'll be the end of the old Whittaker
place, hey? Sho! things change in a feller's lifetime, don't they? You
and me can remember, Ase, when Cap'n Cy Whittaker was one of the biggest
men we had in this town. So was his dad afore him, the Cap'n Cy that
built the house. I wonder the looks of things here now don't bring them
two up out of their graves. Do you remember young Cy--'Whit' we used to
call him--or 'Reddy Whit,' 'count of his red hair? I don't know's you
do, though; guess you'd gon