'Now you get into the bed,' she says, 'without workin' the rag off. I'm
all right,' s'she. 'I can lock up. I like hevin' it to do,' she told me.

"But Eb puts in, kind o' eager:--

"'Lemme lock up the shed--it's dark as a hat out there an' you might
sprain over your ankle,' he says awkward. An' so he done the lockin' up,
an' it come over me he liked hevin' that little householdy thing to do.
An' then he went off home--that is, to where he stopped an' hated it so.

"Well, the poorhouse burnt clear to the ground, an' the inmates hed to
be quartered 'round in Friendship anyhow that night, an' nex' day I
never see Friendship so upset. I never see the village roust itself so
sudden, either. Timothy an' the managers was up an' doin' before
breakfast next mornin', an' no wonder. Timothy Toplady, he had three old
women to his farm. Silas Sykes, he'd took in Foolish Henzie an' another
old man for his. An' Eppleby Holcomb, in his frenzy he'd took in _five_,
an' Mame was near a lunatic with havin' 'em to do for. An' all three men
bein' at the head o' the burned buildin', they danced 'round lively
makin' provision, an' they sent telegrams, wild an' reckless, without
countin' the words. An' before noon it was settled't the poorhouse in
Alice County, nearest us, should take in the inmates temporary. We was
eatin' dinner when Timothy an' Silas come in to tell Elspie. I wished
Eppleby had come to tell her. Eppleby does everything like he was
company, an' not like he owned it.

"Eb was hevin' dinner with us too. He'd been scallopin' in an' out o'
the house all the forenoon, an' I'd ask' him to set down an' hev a bite.
But when he done even that, he done it kind of alien. Peleg Bemus,
playin' his flute walkin' along the streets nights, like he does, seems
more a rill citizen than Eb use' to, eatin' his dinner. Elspie, she'd
got the whol' dinner--she was a rill good cook, an' that su'prised me as
much as her dressin' my wrist the night before. She'd pampered me
shameful all that mornin' too, an' I'd let her--when you've lived alone
so long, it's kind o' nice to hev a person fussin' here an' there, an'
Elspie seemed to love takin' care o' somebody. I declare, it seemed as
if she done some things for me just for the sake o' doin' 'em--she was
that kind. Timothy an' Silas wouldn't hev any dinner,--it was a boiled
piece, too,--bein' as dinners o' their own was gettin' cold. But they
set up against the edge o' the room so's we could be eatin