it
was about time there were a few business changes in Green Valley, that
a few business funerals would help a lot and freshen up things; that
Uncle Tony was no business man, and a lot of that sort of stuff. And
of course Hughey Mason, being a smart Aleck, pipes up and says, 'That's
so, Uncle Tony is no business man. Why, Tom Hall says that when you
find Uncle Tony's emporium locked at eleven o'clock of a winter morning
you can bet your bottom dollar Uncle Tony's home shaking down the
furnace, and if it's closed at four of a summer afternoon Uncle Tony's
sneaked off home to mow the lawn.'

"Well, those idiots and old hypocrites were talking just like that,
goodness knows how long. They never took the trouble to see if Uncle
Tony was really around or not. But all of a sudden I looked around the
corner of the middle row of shelves and there was that poor old man
sitting as still as death in his cashier's cage and looking sick to
death. You know he wouldn't cheat a soul, and as for that store, he'd
die without it. It's all the family he has. Well I had stepped in
there to buy a couple of flat-irons. The children mislaid mine. But I
walked right out for I didn't want to call him out to wait on me.

"I was so mad I just walked around the block till I met Mrs. Jerry
Dustin right at Simpson's corner and I told her the whole thing. She
was as hurt about it as Uncle Tony and kept holding on to Simpson's
garden fence and saying, 'Dear me, Fanny, we must do something. I have
a message for Tony, anyway, and this is just the time to deliver it.'

"So back we went and we met Uncle Tony stepping in at the front door
too. He must have sneaked out the back way and come around the front
so's not to let on he'd heard anything. He was kind of white and
miserable about the mouth and his eyes looked out kind of blind. But
he smiled when Mrs. Jerry Dustin said, 'Good morning, Tony.' I
wonder," Fanny digressed, "if it's true that Uncle Tony wanted to marry
Mrs. Dustin once. Sadie Dundry says so but you know how unreliable
Sadie is about what she knows.

"Well, anyhow, those miserable men things around that stove just smiled
at Uncle Tony like so many Judases and all commenced talking at once.
But Mrs. Dustin didn't give them much chance. She just took up all
Uncle Tony's attention and time. She bought and bought, being real
careful of course to ask only for the things she knew he had; and to
top it all she bought four qu