Susan Clegg and a Man in the House

ternoon, when Susan Clegg had come around by the ga

le to hold 'em down, I do get pretty well wore out. I can see as Mr. Kimball sees how Elijah is wearin' on me for he gives me a chair whenever I go in there now an' that just shows how anxious he is for me to rest when I can, but it really ain't altogether Elijah's fault for the way my back aches to-day, for I got this ache in a way as you could n't possibly understand,

Mrs. Lathrop,

bout. It was n't the kind of book the postal card would have led you to suppose a tall-it was about Asia, Mrs. Lathrop, the far side or the near side, just accordin' to the way you face to get the light while you read, an' so far from its bein' only intended for men it's all right for any one at all to read as has got the time. Now that I'm done it an' know I have n't never got to do it again, I don't mind telling you in confidence that for a book as could n't possibly have been meant to be interestin' it was about as agreeable readin' as I ever struck in my life. There was lots in it as was new to me, for it's a thick book, an' all I knowed

egan Mrs.

to be patriotic since the boys throwed that firecracker into my henhouse last Fourth of July. I will say this for the hen, Mrs. Lathrop, an' that is that she took the firecracker a good deal calmer'n I could, for I was awful mad, an' any one as seed me ought to of felt what a good American was spoiled then an' there, for all I asked was to hit somethin', whether it was him as t

wned and looked

about it. Elijah 's goin' to write a editorial about it, too. Elijah says this business of downtreadin' our only

ies is all what you don't get in the papers nor no other way, an' if the United States really feels they're in the right as to how they're actin' all they need to do is to read how wrong they are in that book where a man as really knows what he's talkin' about has got it all set down in black an' white. I don't believe it's generally knowed here in America as Dewey took Aguinaldo an' his guns over to Manila an' give him his first start at fightin' an' called him 'general' for a long time after they'd decided in Washington as how he was n't nothin' but a rebel after all. I never knowed anythin' about that, an' I will remark as I think there's many others as don't know it, neither, an' I may in confidence remark to you, Mrs. Lathrop, as that book leads me to think as the main trouble with the Philippines is as they are bein' run by folks as don't know anythin' about the place they're runnin' an' don't know nothin' about runnin' for anythin' but places. The man in the book says the Philippines ain't v

sked Mrs

r the army, an' the Philippines is tryin' to live with it, an' seein' as they don't work much an' the Chinese is forbidden to work for 'em, he don't see no help nowhere. What he said about the Chinese was very interestin', for I never see one close to, an' it seems

aid Mrs. Lathrop,

uld sort of see that he thought we 'd ought to of straightened out the South of our own country afore we begun on any other part of the world, an' it is the other half of the world, too, Mrs. Lathrop, for I looked it up on a map an' it begins right under Japan an' then twists off in a direction as makes you wonder how under the sun we come to own it anyway, an' if we did accidentally get it hooked on to us by Dewey's having too much steam up to be able to stop himself afore he'd run over the other fleet, we'd ought anyway to be willin' to give it away like you do the kittens you ain't got time to drown. The whole back of the book is full of figures to prove as it's the truth as has been told in front, but the man who wr

asked Mrs. Lath

d no longer an' I must say as I believe him. Mr. Weskin told me as it's been quietly knowed around for hundreds of years as the crusades was a great success as far as gettin' 'em off was concerned just for that very reason, an' I guess we're hangin' on to the Philippines because it's a place a goo

suddenly and stuck he

that way, an' the people who'd like to have a change ain't the ones as have got any say. If I was a Philippine I'd want a Chinaman to do my work an' I'd feel pretty mad that folks as had so many niggers an' Italians that they did n't need Chinamen should say I could n't have 'em neither. I'd feel as if I knowed what was best for me an' I would n't thank a lot of men in another part of the worl

rt. Mrs. Lathrop