' on.

"'Elspie,' says Timothy, 'you must be ready to go sharp seven o'clock
Friday mornin'.'

"'Go where?' says Elspie. She hed on a black-an'-white stripe o' mine,
an' her cheeks were some pink from standin' over the cook stove, an' she
looked rill pretty.

"Timothy, he hesitated. But,--

"'To the Alice County poorhouse,' says Silas, blunt. Silas Sykes is a
man that always says 'bloody' an' 'devil' an' 'coffin' right out instead
o' 'bandaged' an' 'the Evil One,' an' 'casket.'

"'Oh!' says Elspie. 'Oh, ...' an' sort o' sunk down an' covered her
mouth with her wrist an' looked at us over it.

"'The twenty o' you'll take the Dick Dasher,' says Timothy, then, 'an'
it'll be a nice train ride for ye,' he says, some like an undertaker
makin' small talk. But he see how Elspie took it, an' so he slid off the
subjec' an' turned to Eb.

"'Little too early to know who's goin' to take the Merriman store, ain't
it?' s'he, cheerful. Timothy ain't so everlastin' cheerful, either, but
he always hearties himself all over when he talks, like he was a bell or
a whistle an' he hed it to do.

"Eb, he dropped his knife on the floor.

"'Yes, yes,' he says flurried, 'yes, it is--' like he was rushin' to
cover an' a 'yes' to agree was his best protection.

"'Oh, well, it ain't so early either,' Silas cuts in, noddin' crafty.

"'No, no,' Eb agrees immediate, 'I donno's _'tis_ so very early, after
all.'

"'I'm thinkin' o' takin' the store over myself,' says Silas Sykes,
tippin' his head back an' rubbin' thoughtful under his whiskers. 'It'd
be a good idee to buy it in, an' no mistake,'

"'Yes,' says Eb, noddin', 'yes. Yes, so't would be.'

"'I donno's I'd do it, Silas, if I was you,' says Timothy, frownin'
judicial. 'Ain't you gettin' some stiff to take up with a new business?'
But Timothy is one o' them little pink men, an' you can't take his
frowns much to heart.

"'No,' says Eb, shakin' his head. 'No. No, I donno's I would take it
either, Mr. Sykes.'

"I was goin' to say somethin' about the wind blowin' now east, now west,
an' the human spine makin' a bad weathercock, but I held on, an' pretty
soon Timothy an' Silas went out.

"'Seven o'clock Friday A.M., now!' says Silas, playful, over his
shoulder to Elspie. But Elspie didn't answer. She was just sittin'
there, still an' quiet, an' she didn't eat another thing.

"That afternoon she slipped out o' the house somewheres. She didn't hev
a hat--what few things she did hev