conscience, never denied that in _my_ hearing. Well! Mrs. Ezra Sloper--
I don't know whether you are acquainted with her, girls; I have my
butter of her. She lives out on the Saugo Road; a most respectable
woman. She has a child with a hump back; fell when it was a baby,
and never got over it. I found she wasn't doing anything for the
child,--nice little boy, four years old; hump growing right out of
his shoulders. I said to her, 'Susan,' I said, 'you want to get a
little dog, and let it sleep with that child, and let the child play
with it all he can, and get real attached to it. If anything will
cure the child, that will.'

"She said, 'Mis' Weight,' she said, 'I'll do it!' and she did. She
thanked me, too, as grateful as ever I was thanked. Well, girls,"--
Mrs. Weight leaned forward, her hands on her knees, and spoke
slowly and impressively,--"as true as I sit here, in three months'
time that dog was humpbacked, and growing more so every day."

She paused, drawing a long breath of triumph, and looked from one to
the other of her hearers.

"Well!" said Miss Phoebe, dryly. "Did the child get well? And where
does Doctor Strong's infidelity come in?"

"The child _would_ have got well," said Mrs. Weight, with tragic
emphasis. "The child might be well, or near it, this living day of
time, if the Ordering of Providence had not been interfered with.
The child had a spell of stomach trouble, and Doctor Strong was sent
for. He ordered the dog out of the house; said it had fleas, and
sore eyes, and I don't know what. Susan Sloper is a weak woman, and
she gave in, and that child goes humpbacked to its grave. I hope