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He hoped that no one would call during his absence, but when he returned he found a little girl with a pitcher standing at the door. She came to borrow half a pint of milk. "Milk!" exclaimed Mr. Tolman, in surprise. "Why, my child, I have no milk. I don't even use it in my tea." The little girl looked very much disappointed. "Is Mrs. Walker gone away for good?" said she. "Yes," replied Mr. Tolman.
"That would not be easy," said she, with a smile. "It might be a long time before we could find any one who would want to take the place. We have a fair trade in the store, but it isn't what it used to be when times were better. And the library is falling off, too. Most of the books are getting pretty old, and it don't pay to spend much money for new ones now." "The library!" said Mr. Tolman.
Tolman deferred taking steps toward getting an assistant until P. Glascow, the person in question, should make an appearance, and it was nearly time for the book to be brought in again. "If I get a boy now," thought Mr. Tolman, "Glascow will be sure to come and bring the book while I am out." In almost exactly two weeks from the date of the last renewal of the book, P. Glascow came in.
Above the tumult of voices following the end of rehearsal, some one announced the decision to meet on Wednesday night; and Heman, his bass-viol again in its case, awoke, and saw the Widder putting on her green veil. Rosa Tolman nudged her intimate friend, Laura Pettis, behind Heman's back, and whispered, "I wonder if she's had a good time!
And the closet's about as big as a pocket handkerchief." "Ain't you got any folks?" The blue eyes held a sudden mist. "Nobody but Miss Tolman, and she's only a distant cousin. Ma died two years ago. She used to sew, but she wasn't strong, and we never could get ahead." "My folks are all gone, too." How little and alone she was, but how much nearer to him her aloneness brought her.
An' then his house burnt down, an' he got his insurance money; an' that minute, you turned right round an' says, 'I'll have you. An' now, you say, 'Is it all right? Is it right, Rosy Tolman? You tell me!" Rosa was sobbing hysterically. "Oh, I wish you wouldn't scare me so!" she exclaimed, yet not for a moment attempting to withdraw her hand, or turn aside her terrified gaze.
"Oh, I know it! I know it!" cried Mary, starting toward the door. "There ain't a thing for you to do. There's new bread an' preserves on the dairy-wheel, an' you have 'Liza Tolman pick you up some chips, an' build the fire for your tea; an' don't you wash the dishes, mother. Just leave 'em in the sink. An' for mercy sake, take a candle, an' not meddle with kerosene "
I do not see how fraud or hallucination can come into the most of what we saw last night. I will admit that coming alone by itself the test would have little weight; but it does not come alone. The literature of the subject is great and growing." Tolman smiled. "Yes, the newspapers are filled with accounts of mediums exposed."
"Look here, are you Miss Tolman?" he burst out. "I saw the name outside on the window." "Mercy, no! Miss Tolman's a kind of cousin of mine. She's fifty-two, and she can't hardly get through that door there." He disregarded the description, for the second bundle was being tied up fast. He had never seen any one tie so fast, he thought.
Presently, her happy musing was broken by a ripple from the outer world. A girl came briskly round the corner where the stone-wall lay hidden under a wilderness of cinnamon rosebushes and blackberry vines, Rosa Tolman, dressed in white pique, with a great leghorn hat over her curls.
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