uld lie back exhausted
in the big old chair, only to be reprimanded if her husband chanced to
come in, for "havin' so little energy." It was with delight that she
welcomed Aunt Sophrony, saying:

"Do tell me all the news. I'm nearly always too tired to go out and hear
any."

"Ye do look tuckered," remarked Mrs. Hodgkins, "but hearin' the things
I've got ter tell will interest ye, an' make ye feel reel perky. Ye
needn't feel ye've got ter talk, fer I kin talk 'nough fer two.

"When I started aout this morning, the fust pusson I see was Janie
Clifton, an' what on airth do ye think she's been up to?"

Almira shook her head, to show her utter inability to guess what Janie's
latest notion might be.

"Well, she got an idee that we was all behind the times up here, an'
needed a leetle fixin' up, an' she wondered ef she could slip inter the
chink an' fill the place she thought she see a gapin', an' take in a
leetle money at the same time.

"She's 'mazing sot when she gits her mind on a thing, an' she talked it
over ter hum and carried the day; and she's been daown ter Boston these
past few months a learnin' dressmakin', when we all thought she was a
visitin'.

"Naow she's set up fer herself, an' any of us that has an idee of lookin'
spreuced up, and has a leetle cash ter go with the notion, can buy the
goods fer a gaown at Barnes', an' go right up ter the room over his store
and be measured by Janie fer a fashionable fit.

"Ef some of our husband's doesn't git fashionable fits when they hear the
extravagance Janie's a teachin' we'll be lucky.

"I'll tell ye naow, Almiry, I'm goin' ter have a gaown cut by Janie come
fall, ef it takes all the egg money ter pay fer it!"

"Why Aunt Sophrony!" was all the astonished Almira could ejaculate. Such
splendid courage was quite beyond the meek little woman's comprehension.

"Miss Wilson's baby has cut another tooth, that makes five, an' she's a
doin' well too," continued Mrs. Hodgkins, "but that ain't a flea bite to
what I heerd next.

"Ye know the Marvin's old Uncle Jehiel, him that lived with them five year
an' then went off, nobody knows where, without sayin' a word to 'em? Well,
he's been heard from! A lawyer has writ ter Jack Marvin's father sayin'
there's a will, an' sech a will I'll be baound wuz never heerd of before!

"He's left five hundred dollars ter come ter Jack when he's twenty-one, ef
by that time he's given any sign of 'mountin' ter anything as a scholar, a