"Frost keeps off late, don't it?" said John York. "I laughed when I
first heard about the circus comin'; I thought 'twas so unusual late in
the season. Turned out well, however. Everybody I noticed was returnin'
with a palm-leaf fan. Guess they found 'em useful under the tent; 'twas
a master hot day. I saw old lady Price with her hands full o' those free
advertising fans, as if she was layin' in a stock against next summer.
Well, I expect she'll live to enjoy 'em."
"I was right here where I'm standin' now, and I see her as she was goin'
by this mornin'," said Isaac Brown, laughing, and settling himself
comfortably against the fence as if they had chanced upon a welcome
subject of conversation. "I hailed her, same's I gener'lly do. 'Where
are you bound to-day, ma'am?' says I.
"'I'm goin' over as fur as Dipford Centre,' says she. 'I'm goin' to see
my poor dear 'Liza Jane. I want to 'suage her grief; her husband, Mr.
'Bijah Topliff, has passed away.'
"'So much the better,' says I.
"'No; I never l'arnt about it till yisterday,' says she;' an' she looked
up at me real kind of pleasant, and begun to laugh.
"'I hear he's left property,' says she, tryin' to pull her face down
solemn. I give her the fifty cents she wanted to borrow to make up her
car-fare and other expenses, an' she stepped off like a girl down tow'ds
the depot.
"This afternoon, as you know, I'd promised the boys that I'd take 'em
over to see the menagerie, and nothin' wouldn't do none of us any good
but we must see the circus too; an' when we'd just got posted on one o'
the best high seats, mother she nudged me, and I looked right down front
two, three rows, an' if there wa'n't Mis' Price, spectacles an' all,
with her head right up in the air, havin' the best time you ever see.
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