I says, 'Mr. Shores, when your wife eloped I was one o' the few--the
_very_ few--'s blamed _her_, 'n' I beg 'n' pray 't the quality o' your
wool won't force me to change my mind. Your clerk 't she eloped with,'
I says, 'once give me a nickel three cent piece in place of a dime,' I
says, ''n' up to the first washin' o' them stockin's I never so much
's breathed a suspicion of your mebbe dividin' that seven cents with
him. But I ain't so sure now,' I says, ''n' I ain't prepared to say
what I 'll think from now on,' 'n' then I walked off, leavin' him good
'n' meek, I c'n assure you; 'n' the come-out o' that little game is as
my trade, which ranged fr'm ten to fifty cents a week 'n' _always_
cash, is lost to him forever hereafter."

Mrs. Lathrop was fairly choking with impatience.

"'N' your cousin--" she interjected quickly, as Susan halted for a
slight rest.

"Yes," said that lady, with a certain chilling air of having up to now
suffered from inexcusable neglect on the part of her friend, "I was
thinkin' 's it was about time 't you begin to show _some_ interest in
what I come over to tell you--'n' me here for the best part o' a good
half-hour already. Well, 'n' my cousin! She come out o' a letter, Mrs.
Lathrop, a old torn letter 's you or any other ordinary person would
probably 'a' throwed away without even readin'. But I was never one to
do things slipshod, 'n' I read every scrap 's I 've got time to piece
together, so it was nothin' but natural 's I sh'd quit work 's soon 's
I see Cousin Marion's letter 'n' sit right down to read it. 'N' it's
good as I did too, for 'f I 'd been careless 'n' burned my rubbish
unread, Cousin Marion 'd certainly 'a' burnt with the other scraps,
'n' as a consequence I'd 'a' missed about the happiest minutes 's I