Kimball says is very witty, but it's a
poor kind o' wit, I think. He makes good enough jokes about the rest
of the c'mmunity, but I may tell you in confidence, Mrs. Lathrop, 't I
ain't never heard one joke 't he's told on me 't I considered even
half-way amusin'."
Mrs. Lathrop shook her head sadly.
Then they went in.
The Sunday which followed this particular Saturday was of a heat truly
tropical. All the blinds of the Clegg and Lathrop houses stayed
tightly closed all day, and it is only fair to surmise that those who
remained behind them were not sorry that the minister's absence
allowed them to do so with a clear conscience.
But about half-past seven in the evening Susan's shutters began to
bang open with a succession of blast-like reports, and shortly after
she emerged from her kitchen door and started down town. Mrs. Lathrop,
who was of course cognizant of every movement on her neighbor's part,
saw her go and made haste to be ready against her home-coming. To that
end she set her front door hospitably open, drew two rockers out upon
the porch, laid a palm-leaf fan in one, and deposited herself in the
other.
It was nearly an hour before Miss Clegg returned from town.
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