it,--then comes the raisin' of it, 'n' I espect that 'll be suthin'
jus' awful."

"How was you goin' to find--" Mrs. Lathrop asked.

"Well, I've got to go to town to look at winter coats, 'n' I thought
't when I'd found what I wanted I'd jus' glance through two or three
orphan asylums afore comin' home."

Mrs. Lathrop pinned the purple to the yellow and shut one eye so as to
judge of the combination from the single standpoint of the other. She
seemed to be gradually regaining her normal state of abnormal
calmness.

"I thought 't your coat was pretty good," she said mildly, as Susan
altered her needles. The stocking started violently.

"Pretty good! It's most new. My heavens alive, Mrs. Lathrop, don't you
know 's well 's I do 't I ain't had my new coat but four years 'n'
then only to church!"

"You _said_ 't you was goin' to get--" Mrs. Lathrop remarked, unpinning
the purple as she spoke and replacing it in the bag.

"_Mrs. Lathrop_! 'f you don't beat anythin' 't I ever saw for puttin'
words 't I never even dreamed of into other folks's mouths! 'S if I
should ever think o' buyin' a new coat 'n' the price-tag not even
dirty on the inside o' mine yet! I never said 't I was goin' to buy 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