ivar, and
wouldn't get back until Monday night.

I am glad he wasn't here, for it would have gone hard with me to treat
him in the manner that Jane decided it was best for all the women in
Glendale to treat all the men in this crisis. It sounded sweet and cold
as molasses dispenses itself to you in midwinter, and I could see it was
a strain on Mamie and Caroline and Mrs. Kirkland, Nell's mother, and
young Mrs. Dodd, the carpenter's wife,--the Boston girl that married him
before she realized him,--to keep it up from day to day.

Besides that I'm going to be a politician's wife--though he doesn't know
it yet--and I want the Crag to be away from the necessity of taking any
sides in this civilized warfare. That's one reason I am such a
go-between for Uncle Peter and the League, I am making votes for my man,
so I consider it all right for me never to deliver any of their messages
to each other as they are given to me, but to twist them into
agreeability to suit myself.

Sallie said the Dominie was entirely on our side and that was why she
went walking with him Sunday afternoon. All the other men were cool to
him and he is so sensitive.

But to get back to the back yard. I glory in writing it and want the
Five to consider it as almost sacred data, though I hope they will never
have to do likewise.

Jane and Nell and Aunt Augusta took the two axes and one large hammer
and tore down my back fence while I and the others loaded the planks on
the wagon. Jane appointed Henrietta to sit and hold the slow old horses
in case they should have got demoralized by the militant atmosphere
pervading Glendale and try to bolt. I never saw any human being enjoy
herself as Henrietta did, and it was worth it all just to look into her
radiant countenance.

Jane took all the hard top blows to do herself and left the unloosening
of the lower nails to Aunt Augusta while Nell ripped off the planks that
stuck. I could almost hear Nell's long, polished finger nails go with a
rip every time she jerked a particularly tough old plank into
subjection, and Aunt Augusta dispensed encouraging axioms about pioneer
work as she banged along behind Jane. Jane herself looked as cool as a
cucumber, didn't get the least bit ruffled, and had the expression on
her face that the truly normal woman has while she is hemming a baby's
flannel petticoat.

And though during the day many delightful crises were precipitated, the
most interesting were the expressions t