"What things?" asked Susan.
"They all come on—the ten o'clock—from the junction; Hiram is helping unload."
"What's he brought?" Susan asked.
"Well, he's brought an automobile," said Gran'ma Mullins, "and a lot of other trunks and boxes."
"An automobile!" exclaimed Mrs. Macy, "well, he is rich then!"
"I wouldn't be too sure of that," said Susan, "some very poor folks is riding that way nowadays."
"And he brought three trunks and seventeen big wooden boxes," continued Gran'ma Mullins, "big boxes."
"Three trunks and sev-en-teen—Three trunks and sev-en—" Susan's voice faded into nothingness.
"Goodness knows what's in them," said Gran'ma Mullins. "Hiram was getting so hot unloading that I wanted him to stop and let me fan him, but he wouldn't hear to it. Hiram's so brave. If he said he'd unload something, he'd unload it if he dropped dead under it and was smashed to nothing."
There was a pause of unlimited bewilderment while Mrs. Macy and Susan raised Jathrop upon the pedestal erected by his three trunks, seventeen boxes and the automobile.