Susan Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop | Page 7

o' one." She stopped and sighed.
"There's Jathrop!" said Mrs. Lathrop, with sudden and complete
success. Jathrop was her son, so baptized through a fearful slip of the
tongue at a critical moment. He was meant to have been John.
Miss Clegg gave such a start that she dropped her fan over the fence.
"Well, Heaven forgive me!" she cried,--"'n' me 't never thought of him
once, 'n' him so handy right on the other side of the fence! Did I ever!"
"He ain't thir--" said Mrs. Lathrop, picking up the fan.
"I don't care. What's twelve years or so when it's the woman 's 'as got

the property? Well, Mrs. Lathrop, I certainly am obliged to you for
mentionin' him, for I don't believe he ever would 'a' occurred to me in
kingdom come. 'N' here I've been worryin' my head off ever since
supper-time 'n' all for suthin' 's close 's Jathrop Lathrop. But I had good
cause to worry, 'n' now 't it's over I don't mind mentionin' the reason 'n'
tellin' you frank 'n' plain 't I'd begun on my things. I cut out a pink
nightgown last night, a real fussy one, 'n' I felt sick all over 't the
thought 't perhaps I'd wasted all that cloth. There wasn't nothin' foolish
about cuttin' out the nightgown, for I'd made up my mind 't if it looked
too awful fancy on 't I'd just put it away for the oldest girl when she
gets married, but o' course 'f I can't get a husband stands to reason
there'll be no oldest girl, 'n' all that ten cent gingham 't Shores is sellin'
off't five 'd be a dead waste o' good stuff."
Mrs. Lathrop chewed her clover.
"Do you suppose there'll be any trouble with Jathrop? Do you suppose
it'll matter any to him which side o' the fence he lives on?"
Mrs. Lathrop shook her head slowly.
"I sh'd think he ought to be only too pleased to marry me 'f I want him
to, all the days 't I tended him when he was a baby! My, but he was a
cute little fellow! Everybody was lookin' for him to grow up a real
credit to you then. Well, 's far 's that goes, it's a ill wind 't blows no
good, 'n' no one c'n deny 't he's been easy for you to manage, 'n' what's
sauce f'r the goose is sauce f'r the gander, so I sh'll look to be equally
lucky."
Mrs. Lathrop looked proud and pleased.
"Why can't you ask him to-night 'n' let me know the first thing in the
mornin'? That'll save me havin' to come 'way aroun' by the gate, you
know."
Mrs. Lathrop assented to the obvious good sense of this proposition
with one emphatic nod of her head.

"'N' I'll come out jus' 's quick 's I can in the mornin' 'n' hear what he
said; I'll come 's soon 's ever I can get father 'n' the dishes washed up. I
hope to Heaven father'll sleep more this night 'n he did last. He was
awful restless last night. He kept callin' f'r things till finally I had to
take a pillow and go down on the dinin'-room lounge to keep from bein'
woke up any more."
"Do you think he's--"
"No, I don't think he's worse; not 'nless wakin' up 'n' askin' f'r things jus'
to be aggravatin' is worse. If it is, then he is too. But, lor, there ain't no
manner o' use in talkin' o' father! A watched pot never boils! Jathrop's
more to the point right now."
Upon this hint Mrs. Lathrop de-fenced herself, so to speak, and the
friendly chat ended for that time.
The morning after, Miss Clegg was slow to appear at the summons of
her neighbor. When she did approach the spot where the other stood
waiting, her whole face and figure bore a weary and fretful air.
"Father jus' about kept me up this whole blessed night," she began as
soon as she was within easy hearing. "I d'n' know what I want to get
married f'r, when I'm bound to be man-free in twenty-five years 'f I c'n
jus' make out to live that long."
Mrs. Lathrop chewed and listened.
"If there was anythin' in the house 't father didn't ask f'r 'n' 't I didn't get
him last night, it must 'a' been the cook-stove in the kitchen. I come
nigh to losin' a toe in the rat-trap the third time I was down cellar, 'n' I
clum that ladder to the garret so many times 't I do believe I dusted all
overhead with my hair afore mornin'. My ears is full o' cobwebs too, 'n'
you know 's well 's I