West means to women, frequently talked to herself. "She's such a
nice little thing--but the boys don't take to her like I thought
they would. I don't see as she's having a mite of influence on
their manners, unless it's to make them act worse, just to shock
her. Clark USED to take off his hat when he come into the house
most every time. And great grief! Now he'd wear it and his chaps
and spurs to the table, if I didn't make him take them off.
She's nice--she's most too nice. I've got to give that girl a
good talking to."

She mounted the steps to the back porch, tried tho kitchen door,
and found it locked. She went around to the door on the west
side, opposite the gate, found that also secured upon the inside,
and passed grimly to the next.

"My grief! I didn't know any of these doors COULD be locked!" she
muttered angrily. "They never have been before that I ever heard
of." She stopped before Evadna's window, and saw, through a slit
in the green blind, that the old-fashioned bureau had been pulled
close before it. "My grief!" she whispered disgustedly, and
retraced her steps to the east side, which, being next to the
pond, was more secluded. She surveyed dryly a window left wide
open there, gathered her brown-and-white calico dress close about
her plump person, and crawled grimly through into the sitting-
room, where, to the distress of Phoebe's order-loving soul, the
carpet was daily well-sanded with the tread of boys' boots fresh
from outdoors, and where cigarette stubs decorated every
window-sill, and the stale odor of Peaceful's pipe was never long
absent.