said Mrs. Lathrop.

"Yes, I do, too," said her friend, heartily, "but I 'll come 'n' tell
you about them both right afterwards. I d'n know as I was ever more
curious in my life than I am to see how Lucy is going to claw Hiram free
long enough to marry him. 'N' I 'm interested in Polly's weddin', too.
But there is no use deceivin' you as to one thing, Mrs. Lathrop, 'n'
that is as what interests me the most of all, is what under the sun I 'm
goin' to do myself to get some money. I can't live on bread 'n' water
alone, 'n' even if I could, the flour 'll soon give out if I bread it
along steady for very long. I 've got to get some money somehow, 'n' I
've about made up my mind as to what I 'll have to do. It makes me sick
to think of it, 'cause I hate him so, but I guess I 'll have to come to
it in the end. I 'll go to the weddin's, 'n' then I 'll brace up 'n'
make the leap."

Mrs. Lathrop looked perturbed--even slightly anxious.

"I 'm sorry not to be able to tell you all my plans," Miss Clegg
continued, "but--"

She stopped suddenly--a train-whistle had sounded afar.

"My heavens alive! if that ain't to-day's ten-o'clock comin' from
Meadville, 'n' me solemnly promised to be at Lucy's at half-past nine to
help Mrs. Macy stone raisins! Well, Mrs. Lathrop, I would n't have
believed it of you if I had n't been a eyewitness!--"

PART THIRD

LUCY DILL'S WEDDING

"Well, Lucy has got Hiram!"

There was such a strong inflection of triumphant joy in Miss Clegg's
voice as she called the momentous news to her friend that it would have
been at once--and most truthfully--surmised that the getting of Hiram
had been a more than slight labor.

Mrs. Lathrop was waiting by the fence, impatience written with a
wandering reflection all over the serenity of her every-day expression.
Susan only waited to lay aside her bonnet and mitts and then hastened to
the fence herself.

"Mrs. Lathrop, you never saw nor heard the like of this weddin' day in
all your own ays to be or to come, 'n' I don't suppose there ever will
be anything like it again, for Lucy Dill did n't cut no figger in her
own weddin' a _tall_,--the whole thing was Gran'ma Mullins first, last
'n' forever hereafter. I tell you it looked once or twice as if it would
n't be a earthly possibility to marry Hiram away from his mother, 'n'
now that it 's all over people can't do anything but say as after all
Lucy ought to consider herself very lucky as things turned out,