"'Little too early to know who's goin' to take the Merriman store, ain't it?' s'he, cheerful. Timothy ain't so everlastin' cheerful, either, but he always hearties himself all over when he talks, like he was a bell or a whistle an' he hed it to do. "Eb, he dropped his knife on the floor. "'Yes, yes,' he says flurried, 'yes, it is--' like he was rushin' to cover an' a 'yes' to agree was his best protection. "'Oh, well, it ain't so early either,' Silas cuts in, noddin' crafty. "'No, no,' Eb agrees immediate, 'I donno's _'tis_ so very early, after all.' "'I'm thinkin' o' takin' the store over myself,' says Silas Sykes, tippin' his head back an' rubbin' thoughtful under his whiskers. 'It'd be a good idee to buy it in, an' no mistake,' "'Yes,' says Eb, noddin', 'yes. Yes, so't would be.' "'I donno's I'd do it, Silas, if I was you,' says Timothy, frownin' judicial. 'Ain't you gettin' some stiff to take up with a new business?' But Timothy is one o' them little pink men, an' you can't take his frowns much to heart. "'No,' says Eb, shakin' his head. 'No. No, I donno's I would take it either, Mr. Sykes.' "I was goin' to say somethin' about the wind blowin' now east, now west, an' the human spine makin' a bad weathercock, but I held on, an' pretty soon Timothy an' Silas went out. "'Seven o'clock Friday A.M., now!' says Silas, playful, over his shoulder to Elspie. But Elspie didn't answer. She was just sittin' there, still an' quiet, an' she didn't eat another thing. "That afternoon she slipped out o' the house somewheres. She didn't hev a hat--what few things she did hev hed been burnt. She went off without any hat an' stayed most all the afternoon. I didn't worry, though, because I thought I knew where she'd gone. But I wouldn't 'a' asked her,--I'd as soon slap anybody as quiz 'em,--an' besides I knew't somebody'd tell me if I kep' still. Friendship'll tell you everything you want to know, if you lay low long enough. An' sure as the world, 'bout five o'clock in come Mis' Postmaster Sykes, lookin' troubled. Folks always looks that way when they come to interfere. Seems't she'd just walked past the poorhouse ruins, an' she'd see Elspie settin' there side of 'em, all alone-- "'--_singin'_,' says Mis' Sykes, impressive,--like the evil was in the music,--'sittin' there singin', like she was all possessed. An' I come up behind her an' plumped out at her to know _what_ she was a-doin'. An' she says: "I'm makin' a call,"--just like that; "I'm makin' a call," s'she, smilin', an' not another word to be got out of her. '_An'_,' says Mis' Sykes, 'let me tell you, I scud down that hill, _one goose pimple_.' "'Let her alone,' says I, philosophic. 'Leave her be.' "But inside I ached like the toothache for the poor thing--for Elspie. An' I says to her, when she come home:-- "'Elspie,' I says, 'why don't you go out 'round some an' see folks here in the village? The minister's wife'd be rill glad to hev you come,' I says.