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Warner, Anne, 1869-1913

"Susan Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop"

Shores. I told him 's shrunk stockin's to my order o' thinkin'
was a species o' spilt milk 's knowed no turnin', 'n' I further told
him 't I 'd take it 's a great kindness 'f he 'n' the rest o' the town
would shut their mouths right up tight on my stockin's. I says to him,
I says, 'Mr. Shores, when your wife eloped I was one o' the few--the
_very_ few--'s blamed _her_, 'n' I beg 'n' pray 't the quality o' your
wool won't force me to change my mind. Your clerk 't she eloped with,'
I says, 'once give me a nickel three cent piece in place of a dime,' I
says, ''n' up to the first washin' o' them stockin's I never so much
's breathed a suspicion of your mebbe dividin' that seven cents with
him. But I ain't so sure now,' I says, ''n' I ain't prepared to say
what I 'll think from now on,' 'n' then I walked off, leavin' him good
'n' meek, I c'n assure you; 'n' the come-out o' that little game is as
my trade, which ranged fr'm ten to fifty cents a week 'n' _always_
cash, is lost to him forever hereafter."
Mrs. Lathrop was fairly choking with impatience.
"'N' your cousin--" she interjected quickly, as Susan halted for a
slight rest.
"Yes," said that lady, with a certain chilling air of having up to now
suffered from inexcusable neglect on the part of her friend, "I was
thinkin' 's it was about time 't you begin to show _some_ interest in
what I come over to tell you--'n' me here for the best part o' a good
half-hour already.


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