fallin' off of low ones. He was such a nice boy. All Martha
Willing's children were nice. Mebby you've met her. She lives out
Clarence way."

"Willin?" said Eliph'. "Yes, I sold her a--I mean to say, I met her."

"Well, her husband's dead, and her and her boys is runnin' the farm,"
said Miss Sally, "an' doin' right well, so I guess she ain't afraid of
book agents. She can afford to buy. I don't know as I'm afraid of 'em
either, or hate 'em as such, but I can't afford. Pa don't approve of
books much, an' he can't see why he should pay out money for what he
don't approve of. Books an' taxes he don't care much for. That's why I
was so scared of you."

"I didn't want to sell you a--to sell you anything," said Eliph' meekly.
"All I wanted was to get acquainted, to get well acquainted."

"I guess that's all right then," said Miss Sally. "There ain't anything
more natural than that you should wish that, bein' intendin' to make
your home here. I hope you like the place an' make lot of acquaintances,
but if I was you I'd try not to talk book any more than you have to.
I don't think it'll help to make you popular, as I may say. That Sir
Walter man sort of gave everybody an overdose of book, an' folks feel
kind of mad at book agents ever since. Like father Emmons, when he had
one of his sick spells, an' nothin' would do but he was goin' to die, so
he got up before sun-up an' drove to town to see Doc Weaver. He let Doc
know he felt he was dyin' an' told him the symptoms, an' all Doc says
was, 'All you want is salts. You stop at the drug store an' get a pound
of salts, an' I'll warrant you'll be as well as ever.' So when his
daughter--she's Mary Ann Klepper--went into the house after carryin'
lunch to the men in the field, there was her poor old father settin' at
the table with the big yeller bake-bowl in front of him, an' him
eatin' away at what was in it with a big spoon. 'Eatin' bread an' milk,
father?' she asks, an' her pa looks up with tears in his eyes, an'
swallers down another spoonful. 'No,' he says, as cross as a bear, 'I'm
eatin' a pound o' salts Doc Weaver told me to git, but hang if I can eat
another spoonful, an' I ain't above half done.' So I guess Kilo folks
kind of gag when they think of books."

"If I so much as mention books," said Eliph' pleadingly, "I wish you'd
stop me. Don't let me. Mebby I do sort of get in the habit of it,
thinking it and talking it so much. But I never meant to sell you one. I
only wan