Part 12 (2/2)

”All in ruins,” replied Susan promptly. ”I don't believe you and me is ever going to live in happy homes any more. Fate seems dead set against the idea. And n.o.body can get ahead of Fate. They may talk all they please about overcoming, and when I was young I was always charging along with my horns down and my tail waving same as every other young thing; but I'm older now, and I see as resignation is the only thing as really pays in the end. I get as mad as ever, but I stay meek. I wanted to lam those insurance men with a stick of wood as was lying most handy, but all I did was to walk home. Mr. Sh.o.r.es says he's just the same way.

We was talking it over this morning. He says when his wife first run off with his clerk, he was nigh to crazy; he says he thought getting along without a wife was going to just drive him out of his senses, and he said her taking the clerk just seemed to add insult to perjury, but he says now, as he gets older, he finds having no wife a great comfort.”

”I wish Jathrop would--” sighed Mrs. Lathrop.

”Well, he will, likely enough,” said Susan. ”Now he's rich, some girl will snap him up, and he won't find how he's been fooled till three or four months after the wedding.”

”I suppose Jathrop could marry just any one he pleased now,” said Gran'ma Mullins, sighing in her turn. ”Hiram didn't have no choice; Jathrop'll have a choice.”

”He may be none the better for that,” said Susan darkly. ”If Jathrop Lathrop is wise, he'll not go routing wildly around like a president after a elephant; he'll stick to what's tried and true. But I have my doubt as to Jathrop's being wise; very few men with money have any sense.”

”Who do _you_ think--?” began Mrs. Lathrop, looking intently at Susan.

”I d'n know,” said Susan, looking hard at Mrs. Lathrop; ”far be it from me to judge.”

”They do say, Susan,” said Gran'ma Mullins wisely, ”as he'll end up by marrying you. Everybody says so.”

Susan shook her head hard. ”It's not for me to say. Affairs has been going on and off between Jathrop and me for too many years now for me to begin to discuss them. What is to be will be, and what isn't to be can't possibly be brought about.”

Gran'ma Mullins sighed again, and Mrs. Lathrop went on rocking. As she rocked, she viewed Susan Clegg from time to time in a speculative manner. It was many, many years since she had suggested to Susan the idea of marrying Jathrop.

It was the next morning that Mrs. Macy re-appeared on the scene. The insurance men had unsealed all the houses, and the result was her discovery.

”Well, you could drown me for a new-born kitten, and I'd never open my eyes in surprise after _this_,” Susan expounded to the friends at the hotel. ”But Mrs. Macy always _was_ peculiar; she was always give to adventures. To think of her living there as snug as a moth in a rug, cooking her meals on the little oil-stove--”

”But where--?” interposed Mrs. Lathrop.

”I'm telling you. She's been sleeping in a good bed, too, and being perfectly comfortable while we've all been suffering along of waiting for her to come back.”

”But Susan--” cried Gran'ma Mullins, wide-eyed.

”I'll tell you where she was; she was in your house--that's where she was. The cyclone just gave her a lift over your woodshed, and then it set her down pretty quick. She says she came to earth like a piece of thistledown on the other side. Her story is as your back door was open, so she run in, and then it begun to rain, so she saw no reason for going out again. When it stopped raining, she looked out and seen n.o.body. That isn't surprising, for we wasn't there. She thought that it was strange not seeing any lights, but she started to go home, and she says _what_ was her feelings when she fell over her own roof in the path. She says of all the strange sensations a perfectly respectable woman can possibly ever get to start to go home and fall over her own roof is surely the most singular. She says she was so sleepy she thought maybe she was dreaming, and not having any lantern, it was no use trying to investigate, so she just went back to your house and went to bed in my bed. She says she dreamed of Hiram's ears all night long. I'd completely forgot Hiram's ears, which is strange, for they was far and away the most amusing things in this community. I think that way he could turn 'em about was so entertaining. That way he used to c.o.c.k 'em at you always give him the air of paying so much attention. They say he never c.o.c.ked 'em at Lucy but once--”

”Oh, my, that once!” exclaimed Gran'ma Mullins involuntarily.

”It was a sin and a shame for Lucy to choke Hiram's ears off like she did,” Susan declared warmly. ”She just seemed to take all the courage right out of 'em. Hiram always reminded me of a black-and-tan as long as he had the free use of his ears, but after Lucy broke their backbone like she did, he never reminded me of much of nothing.” Susan paused to sigh. Gran'ma Mullins wiped her eyes.

”You and Hiram give up to Lucy too much,” said Susan. ”I wish she'd married me.”

”I wish she had, Susan,” said Gran'ma Mullins. ”I wouldn't wish to seem unkind to the wife of my born and wedded only son, but I do wish that she'd married you, and if Hiram could only see Lucy with a mother's clear blue eye, he'd wish it, too.”

”Where is--?” asked Mrs. Lathrop, desiring to recur to the main object under discussion.

”Oh, she's gone straight over to Meadville,” said Susan. ”Oh, my, she says, but think of her feelings as she sat inside that nice, comfortable house and realized that she was the only person in town with a roof over her head! You see, she heard me talking with the insurance men, and she didn't know why we was to be sealed up, but she got it all straight as we was going to be turned out of house and home, and she says she made up her mind as no one should ever know as she was in a house and so come capering up to put her out. She says she settled down as still as a mouse, made no smoke, and never lit so much as a candle nights. Mrs.

Macy is surely most foxy!”

”And she's gone to Meadville?” said Gran'ma Mullins.

”Yes, she didn't want to pay board here, and her own house hasn't got no roof, so she's gone to Mrs. Lupey. Old Doctor Carter was over here to appraise the damage done to folks, and he took her back with him.”

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