he windows, sayin' she needed
fresh air, but he locked himself up in the kitchen and filled that so
full of smoke that you had to navigate it by dead reckonin'--couldn't
see to steer. So she was about ready to give up; somethin' that anybody
but a stubborn critter like her would have done long afore.

"But one afternoon she was down to the sewin' circle, and the women
folks there, havin' finished pickin' to pieces the characters of the
members not on hand, started in to go on about the revivals and how
much good they was doin'. 'Most everybody had some relation, if
'twa'n't nothin' more'n a husband, that had stopped smokin' and chewin'.
Everybody had some brand from the burnin' to brag about--everybody but
Hannah; she could only set there and say she'd done her best, but that
Kenelm still herded with the goats.

"They was all sorry for her, but the only one that had any advice to
give was Abbie Larkin, she that was Abbie Dillin'ham 'fore she married
old man Larkin. Larkin had one foot in the grave when she married him,
and she managed to crowd the other one in inside of a couple of years
afterward. Abbie is a widow, of course, and she is middlin' good-lookin'
and dresses pretty gay. Larkin left her a little money, but I guess
she's run through most of it by this time. The circle folks was dyin'
to talk about her, but she was always on hand so early that they hardly
ever got a chance.

"Well, after supper was over, Abbie gets Hannah over in a corner, and
says she:

"'Miss Parker,' says she, 'here's an advertisement I cut out of the
paper and saved a-purpose for you. I want you to look at it, but you
mustn't tell anybody I gave it to you.'

"So Hannah unfurls the piece of newspaper, and 'twas an advertisement of
'Kill-Smudge,' the sure cure for the tobacco habit. You could give it to
the suff'rer unbeknownst to him, in his tea or soup or somethin', and
in a couple of shakes he'd no more smoke than he'd lend money to his
brother-in-law, or do any other ridic'lous thing. There was testimonials
from half a dozen women that had tried it, and everyone showed a clean
bill.

"Hannah read the advertisement through twice. 'Well, I never!' says she.

"'Yes,' says Abbie, and smiles.

"'Of course,' says Hannah, lookin' scornful, 'I wouldn't think of
tryin' the stuff, but I'll just take this home and read it over. It's so
curious,' she says.

"'Ain't it?' says Abbie, and smiles some more.

"So that night, when Kenelm sat