ey seem to be havin' on some o' their spring things."

"Don't you worry, Mary Ann. I don't see anybody that looks any better
than you do," said Abel, with boyish and reassuring pride.

Mr. Pinkham had now bought the "Herald," and also the "Sun," well
recommended by an able newsboy, and presently they crossed over from
that corner by the Fifth Avenue Hotel which seems like the very heart
of New York, and found a place to sit down on the Square--an empty
bench, where they could sit side by side and look the papers through,
reading over each other's shoulder, and being impatient from page to
page. The paragraph was indeed repeated, with trifling additions.
Ederton of the "Sun" had followed the "Tribune" man's lead, and
fabricated a brief interview, a marvel of art and discretion, but so
general in its allusions that it could create no suspicion; it almost
deceived Mr. Pinkham himself, so that he found unaffected pleasure in
the fictitious occasion, and felt as if he had easily covered himself
with glory. Except for the bare fact of the interview's being
imaginary, there was no discredit to be cast upon Mr. Abel Pinkham's
having said that he thought the country near Wetherford looked well
for the time of year, and promised a fair hay crop, and that his
income was augmented one half to three fifths by his belief in the
future of maple sugar. It was likely to be the great coming crop of
the Green Mountain State. Ederton suggested that there was talk of
Mr. Pinkham's presence in the matter of a great maple-sugar trust, in
which much of the capital of Wall Street would be involved.

"How they do hatch up these things, don't they?" said the worthy man
at this point. "Well, it all sounds well, Mary Ann."

"It says here that you are a very personable man," smiled his wife,
"and have filled some of the most responsible town offices" (this was
the turn taken by Goffey of the "Herald"). "Oh, and that you are going
to attend the performance at Barnum's this evening, and occupy
reserved seats. Why, I didn't know--who have you told about that?--who
was you talkin' to last night, Abel?"

"I never spoke o' goin' to Barnum's to any livin' soul," insisted
Abel, flushing. "I only thought of it two or three times to myself
that perhaps I might go an' take you. Now that is singular; perhaps
they put that in just to advertise the show."

"Ain't it a kind of a low place for folks like us to be seen in?"
suggested Mrs. Pinkham timidly. "Peo