sallied forth in company.

"Alone," Susan called back--"well, I should say 't I am goin' alone.
'F you c'u'd see yourself this minute, Mrs. Lathrop; you'd easy
understand 't even 'f you wanted to go no one in their senses 'd be
able to go with you f'r fear o' bein' took for a lunatic."

Mrs. Lathrop glanced dubiously down over herself.

"I spilt--" she began apologetically.

"I c'n see it from here," said Susan, "'n' 's long 's we're on the
subjeck I want to remark right now 't, with the wind settin' the way
it 's blowin' to-day, I don't want you to burn nothin' while I'm gone.
'F you'll excuse my bein' so open with you, Mrs. Lathrop, I'll say 't
a woman in your circumstances ought not to waste nothin' by burnin' it
anyhow, 'n' 'f she does do anythin' so foolish no woman in my
circumstances 'd ought to have her house all smelled up."

"I ain't goin'--" began the neighbor.

"That reminds me 't I am," rejoined she of the black mitts; and so
saying, she quitted the window and was presently seen departing down
her front walk,--a pleasing object in a bonnet of the jetted era and a
shawl of no date whatever.

Mrs. Lathrop divided her afternoon between active service over the
vinegar kettle and long rests of delicious unconsciousness in the
kitchen rocker. Her temperament was not one which wore itself out in
vain regrets over what might have been, and then too she knew that