Susan Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop

Clegg sat in front of hers, and doubtless thoroughly appreciated its cheerful warmth, but it cannot be said that she took any time to contemplate it, for her gaze was altogether

as there was in the wild whirl which Susan's stocking received whenever that lady felt the moment had come to alter her needles. For Susan, when she knit, knit fast and furiously, whereas Mrs. Lathrop's main joy in relation to labor lay in the sensation that she was preparing to undertake it. The sofa-pillow had been conceived-some eighteen months before-as a crazy-quilt, but all of us who have entertained such friends unawares know that the size of their quilts depended wholly upon the wealth of our scrap-bags, and in the case of Mrs. Lathrop's friends their silk and satin resources had soon forced the reduction of her quilt into a sof

f silk from her bag and disposed them side by side to the end that she might calmly and dispassionately judge the advisabil

. Macy's mother's christening-robe, when Susan opened her lips and addressed her. The attack was so sudden that the proprietor of t

frayed to wear every one's nothin' but glad to save you their bonnet-strings, but all the same my own feelin' in the matter is 't a thing that ain't come to sewin' in two years ain't never goin' to come to bindin' in my lifetime, an' naturally that 'd leave you to finish your quilt some years after yo

quilt," said Mrs. Lath

'N' me lettin' you have the inside of the top of father's hat, 'n' Mrs. Fisher savin' you all her corners jus' on your simple askin'. You said a qu

e quilt," said Mrs. Lathro

' faith in you. You know what I think of you, 'n' I called you over to-night to ask your advice about suthin' as has been roamin' my head for a long time, 'n' you can mebbe understand 's it didn't over-please me to have your first remark one as I couldn't in reason approve of. A woman as 'll begin a quilt 'n' trade hen's eggs 'n' all bu

w her gaze from the fire and the yellow polka

needles with a fierce f

ew to you, 'n' bein' new to you I can't see how anythin' 's goin' to be got out o' askin' you f'r advice. It ain't likely 't any one first go-off c'n think of things 't I ain't thought of already, 'n' you know yourself, Mrs. Lathrop, how little you ever have to say to me compared to what I say to you. Besides, 's far's my observation 's extended no one don't ask f'r advice 'nles

ter her position by a hair. Susan whirled he

ed Judge Fitch's, 'n' Johnny 'n' Hiram Mullins had to carry him home. Well, it was a bad business at first, 'n' when she kidnapped the baby 't was worse. I was down in the square the day 't Johnny come with that telegram too. I remember Mrs. Macy 'n' me was the only ones there 'cause it was Monday. I wasn't goin' to wash 'cause I only had a nightgown 'n' two aprons, 'n' the currants was ripe 'n' I'd gone down to get my sugar, 'n' Johnny come kitin' up fr'm the station, 'n' Mrs. Macy 'n' me didn't put on no airs but just kited right after him. Mrs. Macy always says she learned to see the sense in Bible miracles that day, f'r she had n't run in years then, 'n' she's walked with a stick ever since, but she run that day, 'n' Johnny bein' tired 'n' Mrs. Macy 'n' me fresh-she was a little fresher 'n me f'r I 'd been talkin'-we all three come in on Mr. Shores together. Seems like I c'n see him now. He sort of shivered all over 'n' says, 'Ah-a telegram!' 'n' Johnny says, 'Jus' come,' 'n' then we all waited. Well, Mrs. Lathrop, I guess I've told you before how he jus' sort o' went right up in the air!-it said, 'We have took the child,' 'n' he bounced all over like a rat that ain't good caught 'n' then he out 'n' away 'n' we right after him. He kept hollerin', 'It's a lie-it's a lie,' but when he got home he found out 't Mrs. Shores had kep' her word 's usual. Mrs. Macy put cold water to his head 'n' I mixed mustard plasters 'n' put 'em on anywhere 't he was still enough, but all the same they had to lace him to the ironin' board that night. I hear lots o' folks says 's he's never really knowed which end up he was walkin' since, but I guess there's more reasons f'r that 'n her

ement by moving her head in a slow

he was married 's far 's that goes, did n't he?' She jus' rocked back 'n' forth 'n' said 't no one in the whole wide world had any notion how many eight children was till they turned aroun' from the altar 'n' see 'em strung out in the pew 's is saved for the family. I told her 't as far 's my observation 'd 'xtended quite a number o' things looked different comin' down from the altar, 'n' it was in my heart to tell her 't if I'd let any man get so much the better o' me 's to marry me, my self-respeck would certainly shut my mouth up tight afterwards. As long 's a woman 's single she's top-dog in

head in calm and appr

lend-"

ll you're clean gi'n out with listenin'. 'F the minister's wife hadn't come that day 'n' hadn't talked as she did, I might 'a' been left less wore out and, as a consequence, have told you that night what I ain't never told you yet, for it was strong in

athrop, opening

first one to know it because, 's much 's I'm out, you'

ong her pieces and seemed som

es' ba-" s

scre

o the extreme astonishment which she desired to render manifest in those two words-"Mrs. L

looked deep

know-" she

conceive when nor how it entered yours. Only I'm free to confess to one thing, Mrs. Lathrop, 'n' that is 't 'f I was give to

and remained passively overcome by

gan to k

t see it there is a difference just the same. My sakes alive! it's a serious enough matter decidin' to adopt some one for good 'n' all without hurryin' the doin' of it any. If you was 's rich 's I be, Mrs. Lathrop, you'd understa

ky-blue farmer's satin from her bag and looked at it a

ow their children turn out, because, good or bad, like enough they done their best, 'n' if they didn't it was always the other one's fault; but there ain't no one goin' to lay themselves out to try 'n' smooth my child's thorns into a bed o' roses for me. Every one 's jus' goin' to up 'n' blame me right 'n' left, 'n' if it has a pug-nose or turns out bad I can't shoulder none of it onto the Lord, I'll jus'

e slowly recovering from t

me mental reference to the remark that dowered her w

I begin thinkin'. When most folks set out to adopt a baby, the main idea seems to be t

, mute but emphatic, of the

'n' when I get a new dress I buy o' Kimball. I don't want my rats talked about 'n' I don't mind my dress. For which same reason I sh'll make no try 't foolin' my baby. I'll be content if it cooes. I remember Mrs. Macy's sayin' once 't a baby was sweetest when it cooes, 'n' I don't want to miss nothin', 'n' we ain't never kep' doves for me to be dead-sick o' the noise, so I want the cooin' age. I think it'll be pleasant comin' home days to hear the baby cooin', 'n' 'f it cooes too loud when I'm a

n' to find-" Mrs

' I thought 't when I'd found what I wanted I'd jus' glan

judge of the combination from the single standpoint of the other. She

" she said mildly, as Susan altered her

athrop, don't you know 's well 's I do 't I ain't had

Lathrop remarked, unpinning the purple

a coat,-I never thought o' goin' to buy a coat,-what I did say was 't I was goin' to look at coats, an' the reason 't I'm goin' to look at coats is because I'm goin' to cut over the sleeves o' mine. I thought all last winter 't it was pretty queer for a woman 's rich

piece of rusty black s

If I see any 't I think might suit I'll take their numbers 'n' come home 'n' se

s. Lathrop rose and gathe

goin' home,

Susan, rising also. "It's our thinkin' so

ought her shaw

test styles in coat-sleeves were likely to bloom broadcast on so auspicious an occasion, and Mrs. Lathrop herself was sufficiently infected by the advertising in th

that her next-door neighbor had the time to become more than a little anxious

and one minute later she was on her way across. She found the front door, which was commonly open, to be uncomm

peared in the opening was such as to startle ev

Susan, whatever i

to the hall so as to al

e-that's all!" she sa

the lamp was burning, and Mrs. Lath

hy, you l

once heavily upon the

ke me some tea," she sug

ewed a cup of the strongest possible tea in the fewest possible moments, and brought i

n!" she said in

ld restrain her

nything with m

in the hall w

at

arrot," s

rop, betraying as much feel

head," Susan

ut any

ghtened up in her sea

eculiar tone with which one who has spent another's money alway

" Mrs. Lathrop repeated limply, and

it-" she asked

ar it would go over your two dollars, an' it wasn't nothin' that I'd ever wan

n do with it," her

the window so high 't

said it didn'

d came over to her own chair; the tea a

high a tall? It's your good luck, Mrs. Lathrop, 't it hasn't got no head, for t

r parrot. When she brought it in and examined it by the l

et for your-" s

don't want after you've bought 'em. Now take that parrot o' yours!-I wouldn't have him 'f you was to offer him to me for a gift; not to speak o

lent for a long tim

to the Orp

e, though, walkin' roun' 'n' readin' ages, an' jus' as I was goin' out I met a monument man 't had a place right outside

h a heavy sigh and concentrated all he

n wanted me to take a eagle grippin' a pen 'n' writin' father's name on a book 't he's sittin' on to hold open while he writes. I told him 'f I bought any such monument I cert'nly would want the name somewhere else than up where no one but the eagle could read it. He said 't I could have the name below 'n' let the eagle be writin' 'Repose in Peace,' but I told him 't father died of paralysis after bein' in bed for twenty years 'n' that his idea o' Heaven wasn't reposin' in

million, 'n' I can't start in child raisin' 'n' tombstone father all in the same year. Father 'll have to wait, 'n' he got so used to it while he was alive 't he ought not to mind it much now he's dead. But I give the man my address, 'n' he give me one o' his cards, 'n' when I go to the Orphan Asylum I may go back 'n' see him, an' maybe if I tell him about the baby he'll reduce the lion some. The lion is awful high-strikes me. He's three hunderd dollars, but the man says that 's because his tail 's out o' the same block. I asked him if he couldn't take the tail off, but he said 't that would hurt his reputation. He said 'f I'd go up the ladder to his second floor 'n' look down on the lion I'd never talk about sawin' off his tail, 'n' he said 't anyhow cuttin' it off would only make it cost more because

dded her head s

oked pensive for a momen

es ought to be warnin' enough to no woman in this community not to marry no man, f'r one while, at any rate. If Mrs. Shores hadn't married Mr. Shores, she c'd easy 'a' married his clerk when she fell in love with him. No woman that 's goin' to fall in love ever ought to begin by marryin' another man first. It mixes everythin' all up. But Mrs. Shores was a fool or she never would 'a' married him to begin with. I told

ns 'n' detectives drawin' wages for chasin' no wife 'n' baby 't left o' their own accord. But that's jus' like a man, 'n' I must say 't I'm dead glad 't no man ain't goin' to have no right to interfere with my child. I c'n take it 'n' go anywhere 't I please 'n' never be afraid o' any subpenny comin' down on me. 'S far 's I'm concerned, I only wish 't she'd se

ime. Then she took up her parrot agai

ecide on a b-" s

't decide, 'n' so I shook a

t came

I'd wanted a boy all along, so, 's the good o' me bein' free to act 's

turned the

set on a boy

ou go empty-handed. The good o' me tossin' is I c'n always take either side o' the nickel after I've tossed. I ain't nobody's fool-'n' I never was-'n' I never will be. But I guess I've got to ask you to g

tapping on the latter's kitchen window at the early hour of seven in the mornin

aid, opening the doo

thank the minister for bein' so kind or whether to ask him to mind his own business. It's got 'Important' on the corner, 'n' sometimes I don't go to the post-office for two days at a time, but jus' the same it strikes me 't I ain't altogether in f

er hand. Mrs. Lathrop slid one of the kitchen chairs up b

aid again, "'n' I don't know what e

op was all

im 'Sacred to the memory of Blank Clegg,' 'n' he says 't it looks so noble 't he's had an offe

ilence, broken at l

a'n't 'Blank,'" she s

nit her

de world for anybody to name anybody else, I sh'd suppose, 'n' I can't see for the life o' me why that monument man sh'd 'a' hit on it for father. I'm cert'nly mighty glad that he's only marked it on in black chalk 'n' not chopped it out o' the bottom o' the

hrop loo

a little ways 'n' look at the part o' the name 't 's spelt right. Later maybe I'll visit a few asylums-I ain't sure. But anyway I

said Mrs. Lathrop w

rose

l be glad to sell it cheap. They say 't he can't bear to be reminded o' the baby,

Shores," said Mrs. Lathrop. "I'd be glad to buy it

ont porch. If it c'd be got off, I 'd like to buy that of him too. My front porch 's awful old 'n' shaky 'n' I 'll need a good porch to wheel baby on. He c'd take my porch in part payment. It's bein' so old 'n' shaky wouldn't matter to him I don

nk 't you '11 get bac

s too dark to see 'em good. I can't tell nothin' about it, though. You 'd better watch f

rrangement, and Miss Clegg we

g figure betokened some doing or doings so well worthy of neighborly interest

t by the kitchen stove, and one look

ound a

ed supremely

"but I've bought

op sat sud

can believe me or not jus' as you please, Mrs. Lathrop, but I up 'n' begin to cry right then 'n' there. The monument man made me sit down on a uncut block 'n' lean my back up against a No-Cross-no-Crown, 'n' while I sat there he chalked in father's birth 'n' death 'n' 'Erected by his devoted

he ba-" said

roun' to see it. I guess it's the Finger o' Fate. When you come to think o' it, it 's all for the best jus' the way 't it 's come out. The baby 'd 'a' grown up an' gone off somewhere, an' the lion 'll stay right where you put him, for he 's so heavy that the monument man says we 'll have to drive piles all down aroun' father. Then, too, maybe I could n't 'a' managed a boy an' I can scour that lion all I want to. 'N' I will scour him too,-nobody need n't suppose 't I've paid three hunderd d

athrop