ee if he couldn't get some sort of an offer? I heard her ask that."

"Offer for what?"

"Search me! For somethin' she wanted to sell, I presume likely. And he
says to her, 'No, I can't,' he says. 'I've told you so a dozen times.
If I could get anybody to buy I'd sell my own, wouldn't I? You bet your
life I would!' And she waited a minute and then she says, kind of low
and more as if she was talkin' to herself than to him, 'What SHALL I
do?' she says. And he heard her and says he--I'd like to have chopped
his head off with the kindlin' hatchet when I heard him say it--says he,
'_I_ don't know. How do you s'pose _I_ know what you'll do? I don't know
what I'll do, myself, do I?' And she answered right off, and kind of
sharp, 'You was sure enough what was goin' to be done when you got
father into this thing.' And he just swore and stomped out of the house.
So THAT sounds as if he had somethin' to do with it, don't it?"

Galusha was obliged to admit that it did so sound. And when he
remembered Mr. Pulcifer's remark at the gate, that concerning women
and business, the evidence was still more convincing. He did not tell
Primmie that he was convinced, however. He swore her to secrecy, made
her promise that she would tell no one else what she had told him or
even that she had told him, and in return promised to do what he could
to bring about her retention in the Phipps' home.

"Although, as I said, Primmie," he added, "I'm sure I can't at present
see what I can do."

Another person might have found little encouragement in this, but
Primmie apparently found a good deal.

"You'll see a way, I'll bet you you will, Mr. Bangs," she declared.
"Anybody that's been through the kind of times you have, livin' along
with critters that steal the shirt off your back, ain't goin' to let
a blowed-up gas balloon like Raish Pulcifer stump you. My savin' soul,
no!"

Mr. Bangs smiled faintly.

"The shirt wasn't on my back when it was stolen," he said.

Primmie sniffed. "It didn't have no chance to be," she declared. "That
camel thing got it onto HIS back first. But, anyhow, I feel better. I
think now we're goin' to come out all right, Miss Martha and me. I don't
know why I feel so, but I do."

Galusha was by no means as confident. He went back to his room and to
bed, but it was long before he fell asleep. Just why the thought of
Martha Phipps' trouble should trouble him so greatly he still did
not understand, exactly. Of course he was