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To receive a two-pound box on Christmas would have been a suspicious circumstance, for a smaller box would have done quite as well between friends, but to send a two-pound box on a day that was no holiday at all, but just a plain day of the week, could stand for but one of two things the giver was insane, or he had "intentions," and Miss Sally knew very well that Eliph' Hewlitt was not insane.
"You done right when you gave up the book agent business, Jim," said Pap Briggs. "There ought to be a license agin all of 'em." Eliph' Hewlitt, when he reached the large, yellow house, found the door open. The sale was well over.
"Not the hottest," answered Eliph', leaning forward eagerly. "You wouldn't say that if you had a copy of Jarby's Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Compendium of Literature, Science and Art, and studied it up the way I do. This, with the chapter on the Physical Geography of Land and Sea, telling of tides, typhoons, trade winds, tornadoes, et cetery, explains why and how weather happens.
"You don't any more," said Eliph', putting his hand very far across the table. "Well, no, I don't," said Miss Sally graciously, "not all of 'em." The doubt that Miss Sally had expressed regarding Pap Briggs' acceptance of Eliph' Hewlitt as a son-in-law was mild compared with the fact.
So softly did the next comer mount the porch stairs that the two women did not hear him until a gentle tap on the door frame, followed by an apologetic cough, announced the return of Eliph' Hewlitt.
He even whistled as he approached the hotel, but, when he glanced up at the attorney's office and saw Toole and the Colonel with their head together, he stopped whistling. If Toole was going to take either side, Eliph' would have liked to claim him. Toole was a smart man.
She smiled kindly and extended her hand. "Won't you come in?" she asked. "I don't seem to remember your face, but we would be glad to have you join us." Eliph' Hewlitt shook his head. "No'm," he said sadly. "I'd better not come in. Not that I don't want to, but I wouldn't be welcome.
He glowed with missionary zeal. In his eagerness he thoughtlessly slapped the reins on the back of Irontail. Instantly the plump, gray tail of the horse flashed over the rein and clamped it fast. Eliph' Hewlitt leaned over the dashboard of his buggy and grasped the hair of the tail firmly. He pulled it upward with all his strength, but the tail did not yield. Instead, Irontail kicked vigorously.
One dollar down and one dollar a month until paid. But when I got home I found mother low very low. When I went in she was just able to look up and whisper, 'Eliph'? 'Yes, mother, I says. 'Is it really you at last? she says. 'Yes, mother, I says, 'it's me at last, mother, and I couldn't get here sooner.
"I've got to go out," said the editor. "I've got some reporting to do. You'll excuse me. I want to see Stitz. And Skinner. And Guthrie. I wish Doc hadn't gone to his State Medical Society meeting to-day." Eliph' went out with the editor, who locked the door behind him. "Don't say anything," said the editor, "but I think there will be an extra edition of the TIMES out to-morrow."
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