“So should I,” said John. “I should have thought they would have given him a house-warming, and paid up old scores.”
“I suppose there were good reasons why they didn’t.”
“What were they?”
“One was, that everybody loves and respects his wife; another, that Joe had been very quiet for a long time before he was married, and they didn’t quite like to stir him up again, for fear they might get the worst of it, get into a bear-trap, or he might fire a charge of peas or salt into them. Joe Griffin isn’t a very safe fellow to stir up.”
“I suppose,” said Charlie, “they thought as I did about the bear at Pleasant Cove—if you’ll let me alone I’ll let you alone.”
“That’s it.”
“I can tell you some news,” said Mrs. Rhines.
“Let’s have it, mother.”
“Isaac has arrived.”
“Isaac Murch?”