couldn't have got 'em," Matilda
objected.

"She'd have tried," said the old lady, sharply, "and that's more than
can be said of some folks. Not mentionin' any names."

[Sidenote: A Bit of Gossip]

Breakfast bade fair to be a lively sparring match when Rosemary
interposed, pacifically: "Never mind what might have been. Let's be glad
she didn't swallow them." As the others accepted this compromise, the
remainder of the meal proceeded in comparative peace.

"I heard from the milkman this morning," said Matilda, "that Marshs'
company has gone."

"Gone!" repeated Grandmother. "What for? I thought she had come to stay
a spell."

"Gone!" echoed Rosemary, in astonishment.

"Did she go sudden?" queried Grandmother.

"Well, in a way it was sudden, and in a way 'twasn't. She was more'n a
whole day puttin' her clothes into her trunks--the respectable trunk,
and the big trunk, and the dog-house, and the one what had bulges on all
sides but one."

"What train did she go on?"

"The eight o'clock accommodation, yesterday morning. Young Marsh went
down to see her off, and the station agent told the milkman that he
stood lookin' after the train until you couldn't even see the smoke from
the engine. The agent was restin' after havin' helped hist the trunks on
the train, and young Marsh up and handed him out a dollar, without even
sayin' what it was for. He reckoned it was pay for stoppin' the train
and helpin' to put on the trunks, but the railroad pays him for doin'
that, so the milkman thinks it was kind of a thank-offerin', on account
of her havin' stayed so long that they was glad to get rid of her."

[Sidenote: A Tip]

"'Twasn't no thank-offerin'," replied Grandmother, shaking her head
sagely. "That's what they call a tip."

"The agent was some upset by it," Matilda agreed. "He's been keepin'
station here for more'n ten years now and nobody ever did the likes of
that before."

"I didn't say it was an upsetment--I said it was a tip."

"What's the difference?"

"A tip is money that you give somebody who thinks he's done something
for you, whether you think he has or not."

"I don't understand," Matilda muttered.

"I didn't either, at first," Grandmother admitted, "but I was readin' a
piece in the paper about women travellin' alone and it said that 'in
order to insure comfort, a tip should be given for every slight
service.' Them's the very words."

"It means bowin', then," returned Matilda. "Bowin' and sayin',