on it so's you
could get me the money in Centerville when you go."

"Tain't your pension, Mis' Haskell," Joshua said. "Leastways, I never
seen no pensions come like this before. It's like as if it wuz a letter
turned inside out; all the writin' is on the outside."

"Jes' when I'm needing my pension most it don't come," she said, taking
the big envelope. "When I saw you prowling around in back I thought you
was the sheriff's man, mebbe. It give me a shock because--what's this?"

"Don't ask _me_, Mis' Haskell," said the postmaster. "It's for you,
I'm certain sure of that, and that's all I can say."

With trembling hand and a look of pathetic fear and apprehension, the
old lady started to tear open the envelope, saying the while, "You don't
reckon W. Harris is one of them smart lawyers up New York way, do you,
Joshua? I'm ready to get out when I have to. I've--I've stuck it out
alone, I always said I could fight, but I can't fight the law, Joshua.
They don't need to set no lawyers on me--they don't."

She opened the envelope, and unfolded a sheet of paper. It was old and
faded and wrinkled. She glanced at it, then grasped the door jam with
her thin, trembling hand, as if she feared she might fall.

"Tain't the law, is it?" Joshua Hicks inquired.

"You better be gone, Joshua," she said. "No, it ain't the
law--it's--it's something else. It ain't the law, Joshua."

"Is it any trouble?" he asked.

She answered, strangely agitated, "No, 'tain't no trouble, Joshua."

"They ain't a goin' to stop sendin' you your pension?"

"Not as I know of, Joshua, but jes' I want to be alone. It ain't no
trouble of money, Joshua, not this time...."

If it were no matter of money, then Joshua Hicks could not conjecture
what in the world it was, for there were only two things in old Mrs.
Haskell's life, and these were both concerned with money. One was the
monthly receipt of her pension, for in her small way she had helped to
make the world safe for democracy and all that sort of thing. The other
was the mortgage and interest on her little home which the pension could
not begin to take care of. Mrs. Haskell did not understand about this
mortgage at all, but the most important part of it she did understand,
and that was that pretty soon she was going to be put out. She did not
have to be a financier or a lawyer to understand that. She had tried to
beat this mortgage back by sewing and gardening and selling eggs, but
the interest had g