a good deal of her money, bad investments or somethin' like that.
If there's any bad investment anywheres in the neighborhood you can
'most generally trust a widow to hunt it up and put her insurance
money into it. Anyhow, 'twas somethin' like that, for after livin'
there a spell, just as she did when her husband was alive, she all
at once decides to up anchor and find some cheaper moorin's. First
off, though, she decided to spend the summer in a cool place and
some friend, somebody with good, sound judgment, suggests Orham.
So she lets her own place in Middleford, comes to Orham, falls in
love with the place--same as any sensible person would naturally,
of course--and, havin' spent 'most three months here, decides she
wants to spend nine more anyhow. She comes to the bank to cash a
check, she and I get talkin', she tells me what she's lookin' for,
I tell her I cal'late I've got a place in my eye that I think might
be just the thing, and--"

He paused to bite the end from a cigar. His friend finished the
sentence for him.

"And then," he said, "you, knowin' that I didn't want to let this
house any time to anybody, naturally sent her down to look at it."

"No such thing. Course I knew that you'd OUGHT to let the house
and, likin' the looks and ways of these Armstrong folks first rate,
I give in that I had made up my mind TO send her down to look at
it. But, afore I could do it, the Almighty sent her on His own
hook. Which proves," he added, with a grin, "that my judgment has
pretty good backin' sometimes."

Jed rubbed his chin. "Careful, Sam," he drawled, "careful. The
Kaiser'll be gettin' jealous of you if you don't look out. But
what," he inquired, "made her and the little girl move out of
Middleford, or wherever 'twas they lived? They could have found
cheaper quarters there, couldn't they? Course I ain't never been
there, but seems as if they could."

"Sartin they could, but the fact of their movin' is what makes me
pretty sure the widow's investments had turned sour. It's a
plaguey sight easier to begin to cut down and live economical in a
place where nobody knows you than 'tis in one where everybody has
known you for years. See that, don't you?"

Jed whistled sadly, breaking off in the middle of a bar to reply
that he didn't know as he did.

"I've never cut up, so cuttin' down don't worry me much," he
observed. "But I presume likely you're right, Sam; you generally
are." He whistled a momen