"You're not far from right, for 'tis made of old Madras window curtains that cost eight cents a yard when new. There wasn't enough of the stuff to cover all my windows here, so I made it up into a dress rather than waste it, for I liked the pattern of it very much. Oh, yes--and there's sixteen cents' worth of ribbon worked into it--I'd forgotten that. But your dress--oh, I shouldn't dare wear one so costly as a black silk. Really, I should think it a sinful waste of money that might do so much good to the poor, or to the Missionary Society, or the Bible Society, or--" "What time's it gittin' to be?" asked the tormentor. "I'll bet my husban' is jest rarin' 'roun' like a bob-tail steer in fly-time, an' tellin' all the other men that women never know when it's time to go home, an' what a long drive he's got before him, an' all the stock to water when he gits thar. Good-by, Mis' Somerton. Some day I'll borrer that ice-cream machine o' yourn, an' a hunk o' ice, if you don't mind." The other women also took their leave, and soon Grace was alone with Mrs. Taggess, who said:-- "I'd apologize for them, my dear, if you hadn't known in advance that they were the most malicious lot in the county." Grace laughed, and replied:-- "But weren't they lots of fun?" Mrs. Taggess embraced her hostess, and said:-- "I believe you'd find something to laugh at even in a cyclone." "If not," Grace replied, "'twouldn't be for lack of trying." XIX--DAYS IN THE STORE CALEB'S departure was effected without publicity, no one having known of its probability but the Somertons and Pastor Grateway, whom Caleb had asked to provide a temporary substitute to lead his weekly "class-meetin'." The substitute, however, made haste to tell of his new dignity, so within twenty-four hours the entire town knew that Caleb had gone to New York, and great was the wonder; for from the date of the foundation of the town no Claybanker had been known to go to New York intentionally, although it was reported that an occasional native had reached the metropolis in the course of a desultory journey to the bad.