"He said, Mrs. Lathrop, he said, 'Miss Clegg, why don't you go down to the bank and cut your coupons?'"
A VERY SUPERIOR MAN
Miss Clegg sat in Mrs. Lathrop's rocking-chair, on Mrs. Lathrop's kitchen stoop. Mrs. Lathrop sat at her friend's feet, picking over currants. If she picked over a great many she intended making jelly; if only a few, the result was to be a pie.
Susan had on her bonnet and mitts and held her sun-umbrella firmly gripped between her two hands and her two knees. She looked weary and worn.
"It seems kind o' funny that I bothered to go, now that I come to think it over," she said, gazing meditatively down upon her friend and her friend's currant-picking; "I wa'n't no relation of Rufus Timmans, 'n' although I don't deny as it 's always a pleasure to go to any one's funeral, still it's a long ways to Meadville, 'n' the comin' back was most awful, not to speak o' havin' no dinner nowhere. It never makes no one brisk but a horse to go without eatin', 'n' I must in consequence say 't I was really very sorry as Rufus was dead durin' the last part of the drive; but o' course he was a very superior man, 'n' as a consequence nobody wanted to have it said in after life as they wa'n't to his buryin'. So I went along with the rest, 'n' Heaven help me now, for I never was more beat out in all my life. I was up awful early this mornin' to be sure o' not bein' left, 'n' I may in confidence remark as I 've thought many times to-day as if I had been left I 'd of been a sight better off. Long rides is very frisky for them as is young 'n' in love 'n' likes to drive alternate, but for a woman o' my age, bein' wedged solid for sixteen miles at a time is most tryin'; 'n' comin' back some o' them smart Meadville boys had the fine idea o' puttin' walnuts under the seats, 'n' we rode most of the way thinkin' as they was our bones till Mr. Dill jus' got up 'n' whopped his cushion over to see if it 'd feel any different the other side, 'n' I may state as the results I shall remember till I die."
"Who—" began Mrs. Lathrop.
"Everybody!" said Susan; "I never knowed how superior Rufus was till I see how folks turned out for his funeral. Every minister 'n' doctor in the whole vicinity was there. The Lumbs drove way up from Clightville, got overturned in the brook by the old knife factory, but come along just the same. Old Mr. 'n' Mrs. Trumbull started day before yesterday as soon as they knowed he was dead 'n' ate with relations all the way along 'n' got them to come too whenever they could. They was seven buggies 'n' two democrats when they arrived at last. Mrs. Macy was waitin' for me in the square when I got there this mornin' 'n' she told me as a city reporter had come up to write a account of it 'n' as Dr. Cogswell was goin' to be there. They say as a live bishop wanted to make the prayer but Rufus was so advanced in his views it seemed better not to come out too strong over his dead body. Mrs. Macy said it all showed what a very superior man he was. She says as she feels as maybe we did n't appreciate him enough. She says maybe we was prejudiced. Lord knows it's very hard not to be prejudiced agin' the folks you live among, 'n' I guess any one as see Rufus mildly stumblin' around losin' pocket-handkerchiefs 'd of had a hard time regardin' him as superior; but he was superior, 'n' Mrs. Macy says he always was superior, for her aunt, old Mrs. Kitts, of Meadville, remembers when he was born, 'n' Mrs. Macy says Mrs. Kitts always says as he was superior right from the start. She says as Mrs. Kitts says as Rufus's father was really 'most a nuisance, talkin' about his superiority even the very first week he was born. Mrs. Macy says Mrs. Kitts says that his father said right off the day he was born, as to his order o' thinkin' Rufus was different from other babies right then 'n' there. He told Mrs. Kitts hisself as he knowed folks was often fools over their first babies, 'n' he did n't calcalate to act no such part, but in common honesty he must state as Rufus was 'way above the ordinary run, not because he was his baby, but just because it was the plain truth. Mrs. Kitts said she see Rufus herself when he wa'n't but three days old, 'n' she told Mrs. Macy as she must in truth confess as he looked then jus' about as he always looked—kind of too awful wise to have any sense a tall. Mrs. Macy says Mrs. Kitts says the superior thing about Rufus them first days was the way as his mother looked on him. Mrs. Kitts says Tabitha Timmans was a mos' remarkable woman, straight up her back 'n' all in 'n' out in front—one o' them women as is most all teeth—front teeth, 'n' Mrs. Kitts said whenever she looked at Rufus she was all back teeth too. They had him in a clothes-basket to keep off draughts, with a quilt to pervent changes in the weather, 'n' a mosquito-nettin' for fear a fly might thaw out unexpectedly 'n' get near him. Mrs. Kitts said Tabitha Timmans was just about wild over him; she told Mrs. Kitts she felt it gallopin' up 'n' down her spine as how Rufus was surely goin' to grow up to be a inspector—or mebbe the president; she said any one could see he was in for bein' suthin' high up 'n' sort o' quiet 'n' important. Tilda Ann, Sammy Timmans's aunt, was there too. Mrs. Kitts says she always liked Tilda Ann, what little she see of her, even if she was n't patient. Mrs. Macy says Mrs. Kitts says Tilda Ann never had no real fault, only her never bein' able to be patient. She says if Tilda Ann had only had a little patience it 'd of been a great deal better for her in the end, for if Tilda Ann 'd had a little more patience she 'd never have come scurryin' home cross-lots that night in the fog 'n' gone hickety-pickety over the well-curb, thinkin' it was a stone wall. Mrs. Kitts says she never can help considerin' what a shock Tilda Ann must have got when she realized as she was over, 'n' so was everythin' else."
"My—" said Mrs. Lathrop.