drink tea an' listen, so she drank an' listened till Hiram come home
about eleven. Oh, my, but she says they had the time then! Gran'ma
Mullins let him in herself, and just as soon as he was in she bu'st into
floods of tears an' wouldn't let him loose under no consideration. She
says Hiram managed to get his back to the wall for a brace 'cause
Gran'ma Mullins nigh to upset him every fresh time as Lucy come over
her, an' Mrs. Macy says she couldn't but wonder what the end was goin'
to be when, toward midnight, Hiram just lost patience and dodged out
under her arm and run up the ladder to the roof-room an' they couldn't
get him to come down again. She says when Gran'ma Mullins realized as he
wouldn't come down she most went mad over the notion of her only son's
spendin' the Christmas Eve to his own weddin' sleepin' on the floor o'
the attic and she wanted to poke the cot up to him but Mrs. Macy says
she drew the line at cot-pokin' when the cot was all she'd have to sleep
on herself, and in the end they poked quilts up, an' pillows an'
doughnuts an' cider an' blankets, an' Hiram made a bed on the floor an'
they all got to sleep about three o'clock.

"Well, Mrs. Lathrop, what do you think? What _do_ you think? They was so
awful tired that none of 'em woke till Mrs. Sperrit come at eleven next
day to take 'em to the weddin'! Mrs. Macy says she hopes she'll be put
forward all her back-slidin's if she ever gets such a start again. She
says when she peeked out between the blinds an' see Mrs. Sperrit's
Sunday bonnet an' realized her own state she nearly had a fit. Mrs.
Sperrit had to come in an' be explained to, an' the worst of it was as
Hiram couldn't be woke nohow. He'd pulled the ladder up after him an'
put the lid on the hole so's to feel safe, an' there he was snug as a
bug in a rug an' where no human bein' could get at him. They hollered
an' banged doors an' sharpened the carvin' knife an' poured grease on
the stove an' did anything they could think of, but he never budged.