fro, as if it were still summer, under the great elm that
overshadowed Isaac Brown's house, on the Dipford road. Isaac Brown
himself, and his old friend and neighbor John York, were leaning
against the fence.

"Frost keeps off late, don't it?" said John York. "I laughed when I
first heard about the circus comin'; I thought 't was so unusual late
in the season. Turned out well, however. Everybody I noticed was
returnin' with a palm-leaf fan. Guess they found 'em useful under the
tent; 't was a master hot day. I saw old lady Price with her hands
full o' those free advertisin' fans, as if she was layin' in a stock
against next summer. Well, I expect she 'll live to enjoy 'em."

"I was right here where I 'm standin' now, and I see her as she was
goin' by this mornin'," said Isaac Brown, laughing, and settling
himself comfortably against the fence as if they had chanced upon a
welcome subject of conversation. "I hailed her, same 's I gener'lly
do. 'Where are you bound to-day, ma'am?' says I.

"'I 'm goin' over as fur as Dipford Centre,' says she. 'I 'm goin' to
see my poor dear 'Liza Jane. I want to 'suage her grief; her husband,
Mr. 'Bijah Topliff, has passed away.'

"'So much the better,' says I.

"'No; I never l'arnt about it till yisterday,' says she; an' she looked
up at me real kind of pleasant, and begun to laugh.

"'I hear he's left property,' says she, tryin' to pull her face down
solemn. I give her the fifty cents she wanted to borrow to make up her
car-fare and other expenses, an' she stepped off like a girl down
tow'ds the depot.

"This afternoon, as you know, I 'd promised the boys that I 'd take 'em
over to see the menagerie, and nothin' would n't do none of us any good
but we must see the circus too; an' when we'd just got posted on one o'
the best high seats, mother she nudged me, and I looked right down
front two, three rows, an' if there wa'n't Mis' Price, spectacles an'
all, with her head right up in the air, havin' the best time you ever
see. I laughed right out. She had n't taken no time to see 'Liza
Jane; she wa'n't 'suagin' no grief for nobody till she 'd seen the
circus. 'There,' says I, 'I do like to have anybody keep their young
feelin's!'"

"Mis' Price come over to see our folks before breakfast," said John
York. "Wife said she was inquirin' about the circus, but she wanted to
know first if they couldn't oblige her with a few trinkets o' mournin',
seein' as how she 'd got