"Might's well walk Hector into the barn and uncheck him, Zeke," she
said. "They'll keep him more'n a half an hour. That young man, 'Zekiel
Forbes,--that young man's my _hope_." Mrs. Forbes spoke impressively and
shook her forefinger to emphasize her words.

"What you hoping about him?" asked 'Zekiel, laying down the harness and
proceeding to lead the gray horse up the incline into the barn.

"Shouldn't wonder a mite if he was our deliverer," went on Mrs. Forbes.
"I saw it in Mrs. Evringham's eye that he suited her, the first night
that she met him here at dinner. I like him first-rate, and I don't mean
him any harm; but he's one of these young doctors with plenty of money
at his back, bound to have a fashionable practice and succeed. His face
is in his favor, and I guess he knows as much as any of 'em, and he
can afford the luxury of a wife brought up the way Eloise Evringham has
been. That's right, Zeke. Unfasten the check-rein, though the doctor
don't use a mean one, I must say. I only hope there's a purgatory for
the folks that use too short check-reins on their horses. I hope they'll
have to wear 'em themselves for a thousand years, and have to stand
waiting at folks' doors frothing at the mouth, and the back of their
necks half breaking when the weather's down to zero and up to a hundred.
That's what I hope!"

'Zekiel grinned. "You want 'em to try the cold place and the hot one
too, do you?"

"Yes I do, and to stay in the one that hurts the most. The man that uses
a decent check-rein on his horse," continued Mrs. Forbes, dropping into
a philosophizing tone, "is apt to be as decent to his wife. The doctor