Mrs. Lathrop shook her head sadly.
Then they went in.
The Sunday which followed this particular Saturday was of a heat truly tropical. All the blinds of the Clegg and Lathrop houses stayed tightly closed all day, and it is only fair to surmise that those who remained behind them were not sorry that the minister's absence allowed them to do so with a clear conscience.
But about half-past seven in the evening Susan's shutters began to bang open with a succession of blast-like reports, and shortly after she emerged from her kitchen door and started down town. Mrs. Lathrop, who was of course cognizant of every movement on her neighbor's part, saw her go and made haste to be ready against her home-coming. To that end she set her front door hospitably open, drew two rockers out upon the porch, laid a palm-leaf fan in one, and deposited herself in the other.
It was nearly an hour before Miss Clegg returned from town. She appeared very warm, but pleased with herself for having gone. As she sank down in the chair and began to agitate the fan, Mrs. Lathrop's eyes fairly gleamed with anticipation.
"I s'pose—" she began.
"Well, no," said Susan, "seems they ain't, after all. The air down town is more like a revival than anythin' else, everybody 's up tellin' their experience an' callin' out on Heaven to save 'em. 'N' the worst of all is Mrs. Brown!—she never knew 't Henry Ward Beecher walks in his sleep! No more did I nor nobody else, 'n' I must say 't I do think 't the minister 'd ought to 'a' told some of us so's we could 'a' been a little prepared, for there's many a night 's I've left clothes out on the line 's I'd never risked 'f I'd been aware o' the possibility o' Henry Ward Beecher bein' broad-cast. Mrs. Brown says, though, 's it ain't his walkin' in his sleep as is troublin' her, it's his eatin' in his walkin'. Mrs. Lathrop, you never hear the like o' what she told me! It's beyond all belief! He eat the Sunday layer-cake 'n' the Sunday-dinner pie 'n' the whole week's tin o' doughnuts, 'n' then went back to bed 'n' never turned a hair. Why, she says she never did—in all her life. She says when she see the jelly streaks on the bed an' felt his sticky door-knob, she was all used up, for Babes in the Woods was criminal beside the way he looked to be sleepin'. 'N' he don't remember nothin' a tall to-day, not one livin' doughnut does that boy recolleck, 'n' she says 'f she didn't know it to be so on a'count o' the empty tin she'd doubt herself an' believe him by choice, he looks so truthful. But empty tins is empty tins, 'n' no one can deny that fact.
"I see Mrs. Craig too. Mrs. Craig's some altered as to her yesterday's view in regard to Augustus. That cat 't she makes so much over 's gone, 'n' she's most crazy as a consequence. It's him as she warms her feet on winters, 'n' when I asked her how under the sun she come to feel the need o' it to-day she didn't even smile. She says she asked Augustus right off 's quick 's she missed it, 'n' all he said was, 'Wash zhat? Zhat a cat? Zhi a cat? Zhu a cat?' 'n' she see 't there wasn't no information to be got out o' him. She says, though, that if you bar the cat he's pretty good, only he's so tiresome. He follows her all over, sayin', 'Wash zhat? Zhat a hair-pin? Zhi a hair-pin? Zhu a hair-pin?' She says it ain't nothin' to really complain of, but it's gettin' a little wearin', 'n' she was lookin' more worried 'n her talk bore out, but Miss White come up 'n' begun about Fox, 'n' that kind o' ended Augustus. Miss White says 'f the minister wanted to name a child after Fox's Martyrs he was welcome, but she 'n' her family never bargained on bein' the martyrs. She says 't Fox takes fits o' yellin' 'n' when he begins he don't never stop. Her mother's deaf, 'n' said to let the child yell it out 'n' teach him a lesson, but Deacon White has got his ears same as ever, 'n' he couldn't stand the noise, 'n' so he hired Fox to stop by promisin' him a trumpet 's soon as the store is open to-morrow mornin'. Miss White says her mother said buyin' trumpets was a poor kind o' discipline, 'n' Mrs. Fisher come along just then 'n' said her notion o' discipline was rewardin' the good instead o' the bad, 'n' 't she was goin' to give John Bunyan a dish o' cookies to keep in his washstand drawer, 'cause he went out in the garden this mornin' while Mr. Fisher was down for the mail, 'n' he tried his last night's lesson in graftin' on things in general there, 'n' he grafted corn 'n' potatoes 'n' asparagus all back 'n' forth 'n' killed 'em all. She says Mr. Fisher was awful mad 'n' wanted to shake John Bunyan, but she jus' up 'n' told Mr. Fisher 't she'd been tellin' him 't there was a mighty big difference between theory 'n' practice f'r these many years, 'n' 't now John Bunyan was sent by the hand o' Providence to show him jus' what she meant.
"I see Mrs. Macy too, 'n' she's happy for the whole town. Seems Roxana was so lonesome for the other dozen 't she jus' sat 'n' rolled down tears steady, 'n' this afternoon when Mrs. Sperrit drove in to see her sister she jus' took Roxana home with her. She says Roxana 'll be happy with Bobby on the farm, 'n' it's easy to be seen as Mrs. Maxwell is envyin' Mrs. Macy, for she says 't it's as plain 's the nose on the outside o' your face 't 'Liza Em'ly 's nothin' to rip."
Miss Clegg ceased speech to rock and fan for a minute or two.