market,' if ever there was one! Always a-dreamin' an' never
accomplishin' anything.

"Now Lem Parraday's opened that bar of his'n--an' he'd oughter be
tarred an' feathered for doin' of it--I 'spect Hopewell will be hangin'
about there most of his time like the rest o' the ne'er-do-well male
critters of this town, an' a-lettin' of what little business he's got
go to pot."

"Oh, Miz Scattergood," said Aunt 'Mira comfortably, "I wouldn't give
way ter sech forebodin's. Hopewell is rather better than the ordinary
run of men, I allow."

Uncle Jason chuckled. "It never struck me," he said, "that Hopewell
was one o' the carousin' kind. I'd about as soon expec' Mr. Middler to
cut up sech didoes as Hope Drugg."

Mrs. Scattergood flushed and her eyes snapped. If she was birdlike,
she could peck like a bird, and her bill was sharp.

"I reckon there ain't none of you men any too good," she said;
"minister, an' all of ye. Oh! I know enough about _men_, I sh'd hope!
I hearn a lady speak at the Skunk's Holler schoolhouse when I was there
at my darter-in-law's last week. She was one o' them suffragettes ye
hear about, and she knowed all about men and their doin's.

"I wouldn't trust none o' ye farther than I could sling an elephant by
his tail! As for Hopewell Drugg--he never was no good, and he never
will be wuth ha'f as much again!"

"Well, well, well," chuckled Uncle Jason, easily. "How did this here
sufferin-yet l'arn so much about the tribes o' men? I 'spect she was a
spinster lady?"

"She was a Miss Pogannis," was the tart reply.

"Ya-as," drawled Mr. Day. "It's them that's never summered and
wintered a man that 'pears ter know the most about 'em. Ev'ry old maid
in the world knows more about bringin' up children than the wimmen
that's had a dozen."

"Oh, yeou needn't think she didn't know what she was talkin' abeout!"
cried Mrs. Scattergood, tossing her head. "She culled her examples
from hist'ry, as well as modern times. Look at Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob! All them men kep' their wimmen in bondage.

"D'yeou s'pose Sarah wanted to go trapesing all over the airth, ev'ry
time Abraham wanted ter change his habitation?" demanded the
argumentative suffragist. "Of course, he always said God told him to
move, not the landlord. But, my soul! a man will say anything.

"An' see how Jacob treated Rachel----"

"Great Scott!" ejaculated Uncle Jason, letting his pipe go out. "I
thought Jacob was a fav'rite he