braced as if to meet a shock. But Rebecca Mary was terribly afraid.

"Every mite o' that seam? Then I guess you can't have done it very
well; that's what I guess! If it ain't done well, you'll have to
take it--"

"Wait--please, won't you wait, Aunt 'Livia? I've got to say
something. I mean, I've got all the over-'n'-overing I'm ever going
to do done. THAT'S what's done. The hundred-and-oneth stitch was
my stent, and it's done. I'm not ever going to take the hundred
and twoth. I've decided."

Understanding filtered drop by drop into Aunt Olivia's bewildered
brain. She gasped at the final drop.

"Not ever going to take another stitch?" she repeated, with a
calmness that was awfuler than storm.

"No'm."

"You've decided?"

"Yes'm."

"May I ask when this--this state of mind began?"

Rebecca Mary girded herself afresh. She had such need of recruiting
strength.

"It's been coming on," she said. "I've felt it. I knew all the time