"Mis' Postmaster Sykes was president o' the Sodality last year, you know,--she's most always president of everything,--an' we'd been workin' quite hard all that winter, an' had got things in the cemetery rill ship-shape--at least I mean things _on_ the cemetery was. An' at one o' the July meetin's last summer Mis' Sykes up an' proposed that we give over workin' for the dead an' turn to the livin', an' pave the main street of Friendship Village. "'True,' she says, 'our constitution states that the purpose of our Sodality shall be to keep up the graves of our townspeople an' make 'em attractive to others. But,' says she, 'when they ain't enough of us dead to occupy all the time, the only Christian way to remedy that is to work for folks before they die, while we're waitin' for their graves.' "This seemed reasonable, an' we voted unanimous to pave Daphne Street. An' on the way home Mis' Sykes an' Mis' Timothy Toplady an' I see Timothy Toplady settin' in the post-office store, an' we went in to tell him an' Silas Sykes about it. But before we could start in, Silas says, eyebrows all eager, 'Ain't you heard?' "'Heard what?' says his wife, kind o' cross, bein' he was her wedded husband an' she _hadn't_ heard. "''Bout Threat Hubbelthwait,' says Silas, lookin' at Mis' Toplady an' me, bein's Mis' Sykes was his wife. 'Drunk again,' says Silas, 'an' fiddlin' for dear life, an' won't let anybody into the hotel. Mis' Hubbelthwait has gone over to her mother's, an' the hired girl with her; an' Threat's settin' in the bar an' playin' all the hymn tunes he knows.' "It wasn't the first time it had happened, you know. Threat an' his wife an' the hired girl keep the only hotel in Friendship Village--when Threat is sober. When he isn't, he sometimes closes up the house an' turns out whoever happens to be there, an' won't let a soul in--though, of course, not much of anybody ever comes to Friendship anyway, excep' now an' then an automobile on its way somewheres. An' there Threat will set in the bar, sometimes most of one week, sometimes most of two, an' scrape away on the only tunes he knows--all hymns, 'Just As I Am,' an' 'Can A Little Child Like Me?' Threat don't mean to be sacrilegious; he shows that by never singin' them two hymns in church, when they're give out. "'Land!' says Mis' Sykes, when Silas got through, 'what men are!' "'We ain't so much as woman, lemme tell you,' says Silas, right crisp. Which wasn't what he meant, an' we all laughed at him, so he was a little mad to start with. "'The Sodality's decided to pave Daphne Street,' Mis' Sykes mentions then, simple. "'Pave _what_?' shouts Silas--Silas always seems to think the more you do in sound the more you'll do in sense. "'Do _what_ to Daphne Street?' says Timothy, whirlin' from the peanut roaster. "'Pave Daphne Street,' says Mis' Sykes an' Mis' Toplady an' me, wonderin'. "Silas wrapped his arms around his own shoulders.