be John'll get him to paint our house when
he's through at the Stocktons.

"Talk about physical deformities! Eva Collins has got it into her head
that she's too fat entirely and she's been dieting and rolling and
taking all sorts of exercises religiously. Seems she got so set on
being thin that she practices these exercises whenever she happens to
think of it and wherever she happens to be. She happened to be right
under the lights three or four times and so she smashed them, globes
and all. Bill says she'd better reduce in the barn or else let him
charge admission for a rolling performance to pay for the broken lights.

"So there's Eva trying to thin off and they say Mert Hagley's swollen
all out of shape, having been stung almost to death by his own bees.
Of course, nobody's sympathizing overmuch with Mert. He was so afraid
of losing a swarm of bees that he forgot to be cautious and there he is
laid out. But it isn't the bee stings that hurt him so much. Mary's
been willed a good farm and a big lump of cash by some aunt that died a
month ago and hated Mert like poison. And the thing's just gone to
Mary's head.

"She's gone into the city on regular spending sprees and Mert's wild.
He can't touch the farm and he's afraid Mary'll have that lump of money
all spent before he gets out of bed. Everybody's hoping she will and
advising her to buy every blessed thing she ever had a hankering for
and things she never even heard of. Mrs. Brownlee, the president of
the Civic League, even told her to buy a dish-washing machine, and
heavens, if Mary didn't go right down and buy it. Doc Philipps advised
her to buy herself the very best springs and mattress on the
market--that it would help her back to sleep decently of nights. She's
having hot-water heat put in and is going to do her washing with an
electric washer. Seth Curtis put her up to that. And as soon as Mert
gets better she's going visiting her sister in Colorado. She says
she'll likely die of homesickness but that she's just got to go off
somewhere to get used to and learn to wear properly all the new clothes
she's got.

"Well, Mary's buying all these labor-saving machines got the whole town
to thinking and spending. Dick's put in a new cash register they say
is nice enough to have in the parlor. It made Jessie Williams buy a
lot of new silver that she didn't need no more than a cat needs a
match-box. But she got it and she gave a luncheon the other da