“I see Mrs. Craig too.  Mrs. Craig’s some altered as to her yesterday’s view in regard to Augustus.  That cat ’t she makes so much over ’s gone, ‘n’ she’s most crazy as a consequence.  It’s him as she warms her feet on winters, ‘n’ when I asked her how under the sun she come to feel the need o’ it to-day she didn’t even smile.  She says she asked Augustus right off ’s quick ’s she missed it, ‘n’ all he said was, ‘Wash zhat?  Zhat a cat?  Zhi a cat?  Zhu a cat?’ ‘n’ she see ’t there wasn’t no information to be got out o’ him.  She says, though, that if you bar the cat he’s pretty good, only he’s so tiresome.  He follows her all over, sayin’, ’Wash zhat?  Zhat a hair-pin?  Zhi a hair-pin?  Zhu a hair-pin?’ She says it ain’t nothin’ to really complain of, but it’s gettin’ a little wearin’, ‘n’ she was lookin’ more worried ’n her talk bore out, but Miss White come up ‘n’ begun about Fox, ‘n’ that kind o’ ended Augustus.  Miss White says ’f the minister wanted to name a child after Fox’s Martyrs he was welcome, but she ‘n’ her family never bargained on bein’ the martyrs.  She says ‘t Fox takes fits o’ yellin’ ‘n’ when he begins he don’t never stop.  Her mother’s deaf, ‘n’ said to let the child yell it out ‘n’ teach him a lesson, but Deacon White has got his ears same as ever, ‘n’ he couldn’t stand the noise, ‘n’ so he hired Fox to stop by promisin’ him a trumpet ’s soon as the store is open to-morrow mornin’.  Miss White says her mother said buyin’ trumpets was a poor kind o’ discipline, ‘n’ Mrs. Fisher come along just then ‘n’ said her notion o’ discipline was rewardin’ the good instead o’ the bad, ‘n’ ‘t she was goin’ to give John Bunyan a dish o’ cookies to keep in his washstand drawer, ’cause he went out in the garden this mornin’ while Mr. Fisher was down for the mail, ‘n’ he tried his last night’s lesson in graftin’ on things in general there, ‘n’ he grafted corn ‘n’ potatoes ‘n’ asparagus all back ‘n’ forth ‘n’ killed ’em all.  She says Mr. Fisher was awful mad ‘n’ wanted to shake John Bunyan, but she jus’ up ‘n’ told Mr. Fisher ‘t she’d been tellin’ him ’t there was a mighty big difference between theory ‘n’ practice f’r these many years, ‘n’ ‘t now John Bunyan was sent by the hand o’ Providence to show him jus’ what she meant.

“I see Mrs. Macy too, ‘n’ she’s happy for the whole town.  Seems Roxana was so lonesome for the other dozen ‘t she jus’ sat ‘n’ rolled down tears steady, ‘n’ this afternoon when Mrs. Sperrit drove in to see her sister she jus’ took Roxana home with her.  She says Roxana ’ll be happy with Bobby on the farm, ‘n’ it’s easy to be seen as Mrs. Maxwell is envyin’ Mrs. Macy, for she says ’t it’s as plain ’s the nose on the outside o’ your face ’t ’Liza Em’ly ‘s nothin’ to rip.”

Miss Clegg ceased speech to rock and fan for a minute or two.

“Did you see—­” asked Mrs. Lathrop.