own to look at winter coats, 'n' I thought
't when I'd found what I wanted I'd jus' glance through two or three
orphan asylums afore comin' home."

Mrs. Lathrop pinned the purple to the yellow and shut one eye so as to
judge of the combination from the single standpoint of the other. She
seemed to be gradually regaining her normal state of abnormal
calmness.

"I thought 't your coat was pretty good," she said mildly, as Susan
altered her needles. The stocking started violently.

"Pretty good! It's most new. My heavens alive, Mrs. Lathrop, don't you
know 's well 's I do 't I ain't had my new coat but four years 'n'
then only to church!"

"You _said_ 't you was goin' to get--" Mrs. Lathrop remarked, unpinning
the purple as she spoke and replacing it in the bag.

"_Mrs. Lathrop_! 'f you don't beat anythin' 't I ever saw for puttin'
words 't I never even dreamed of into other folks's mouths! 'S if I
should ever think o' buyin' a new coat 'n' the price-tag not even
dirty on the inside o' mine yet! I never said 't I was goin' to buy a
coat,--I never thought o' goin' to buy a coat,--what I did say was 't
I was goin' to _look at_ coats, an' the reason 't I'm goin' to look at
coats is because I'm goin' to cut over the sleeves o' mine. I thought
all last winter 't it was pretty queer for a woman 's rich 's I be to
wear old-fashioned sleeves--more particularly so where I c'n easy cut
a new sleeve crossways out o' the puffs o' the old ones. 'N' _that's_
why I want to look at coats, Mrs. Lathrop, for I ain't in the habit o'
settin' my shears in where I can't see my way out."

Mrs. Lathrop fingered a piece of rusty black silk and made no comment.

"When I get done lookin' at coats, lookin' 't orphans 'll be jus' a
nice change. If I see any 't I think might suit I'll take their
numbers 'n' come home 'n' see about decidin', 'n' if I don't see any
't I like I'll come home jus' the same."

The clock struck nine. Mrs. Lathrop rose and gathered up her bag of
pieces.

"I mus' be goin' home," she said.

"I was thinkin' that very same thing," said Susan, rising also. "It's
our thinkin' so much the same't keeps us friends, I guess."

Mrs. Lathrop sought her shawl and departed.

* * * * *

It was about a week later that the trip to town took place. The day
was chosen to suit the opening of a most unprecedented Fire-Sale. Miss
Clegg thought that the latest styles in coat-sleeves were likely to
bloom broad