They fairly jumped at him then. They surrounded him in a howling mob and
demanded how he dared to turn them out, and what did he mean by saying
they were overfed, and they would leave when they were good and ready
and not before, and he could go to blazes. It was the most scandalous
thing I've ever known of at Hope Springs, and in the midst of it Mr.
Pierce stood cool and quiet, waiting for a chance to speak. And when
the time came he jumped in and told them the truth about themselves, and
most of it hurt.

He was good and mad, and he stood there and picked out the flabby ones
and the fat ones, the whisky livers and the tobacco hearts and the
banquet stomachs, and called them out by name.

When he got through they were standing in front of him, ashamed to look
at one another, and not knowing whether to fall on him and tear him to
pieces, or go and weep in a corner because they'd played such havoc with
the bodies the Lord gave them. If he'd weakened for a minute they'd have
jumped on him. But he didn't. He got through and stood looking at them
in their sheets, and then he said coolly:

"The bus will be ready at two-thirty, gentlemen," and turning on his
heels, went into the office and closed the door.

They scattered to their rooms in every stage of rage and excitement,
and at last only Mr. Sam and I were left staring at each other. "Damned
young idiot!" he said. "I wish to heavens you'd never suggested bringing
him here, Minnie!"

And leaving me speechless with indignation, he trailed himself and his
sheet up the stairs.

CHAPTER XXII

HOME TO ROOST

I couldn't stand any more. It was all over! I rushed to my room and
threw myself on the bed. At two-thirty I heard the bus come to the
porte-cochere under my window and then drive away; that was the last
straw. I put a pillow over my head so nobody could hear me, and then and
there I had hysterics. I knew I was having them, and I wasn't ashamed.
I'd have exploded if I hadn't. And then somebody jerked the pillow away
and I looked up, with my eyes swollen almost shut, and it was Doctor
Barnes. He had a glass of water in his hand and he held it right above
me.

"One more yell," he said, "and it goes over you!"

I lay there staring up at him, and then I knew what a fright I looked,
and although I couldn't speak yet, I reached up and felt for my
hairpins.

"That's better," he said, putting down the glass. "Another ten minutes
of that and you'd have bur