t. But it won't last, I'm sure. She isn't really
discontented; she only thinks she is."

Daniel sighed. "I know," he said. "Fact is, I ain't up-to-date enough,
myself, that's what's the matter. She's a mighty able, ambitious
woman, your mother is, Gertie, and I don't wonder she gets to thinkin',
sometimes, that Trumet is a kind of one-horse town. I like it; I AM
one-horse, I suppose. But she ain't, and she ain't satisfied to be
satisfied, like me. It's a good thing she ain't, I guess. Somebody's got
to live up to the responsibilities of life, and--"

Gertrude laughed. "She said that, didn't she," she interrupted.

"Why, yes, she did. She says it every once in a while. How did you
know?"

"I guessed. And I imagine Mrs. Phelps Black said it first. But there,
Dad, be patient and.... Sh-sh! here's Mother now."

It was Serena, sure enough, breathless from hurrying, her hat a bit
on one side, one glove off and the other on, but full of energy and
impatience.

"I suppose you've had dinner," she exclaimed. "Well, all right, I don't
care. I couldn't help being late, there was so much to do at the lodge
rooms and nobody to do it right, except me. If Mrs. Black hadn't helped
and superintended and--and everything, I don't know where we should have
been. And those visiting delegates from Boston coming! I must get a bite
and hurry back. Where's Azuba? Azuba!"

She was rushing in the direction of the kitchen, but her husband
detained her.

"Hold on, Serena," he shouted. "Goin' back! What do you mean? You ain't
goin' back to that lodge this afternoon, are you? Why, Gertie's goin' on
the up-train!"

"I know, but I must go back, Daniel. Goodness knows what would happen
if I didn't. If you had seen some of the decorations those other women
wanted to put up, you would think it was necessary for someone with
respectable taste to be there. Why, Sophronia Smalley actually would
have draped the presiding officer's desk--MY desk--with a blue flag with
a white whale on it, if I hadn't been there to stop her."

"Well, I--Why, Serena, you know Sophrony thinks a sight of that flag.
Simeon Smalley, her father, was in the whalin' trade for years, and that
flag was his private signal. She always has that flag up somewhere."

"Well, she shan't have it on my desk. Annette--Mrs. Black, I mean--said
it was ridiculous. If such a thing happened in Scarford the audience
would have hysterics. Would you want your wife to make a spectacle of
herse