Mrs. Hawkins laughed raucously. “The Lord save us, I guess not! Why Emmanuel has gone and married a play actress--and isn't she some? She rides a hoss just like a man does, and the way she jumps fences and rides hur-rah-ti-cut down the street would jes' make your hair stand on end. She's away now--I wish you could see her. Of course you're goin' over to the store.” “Why, certainly,” said Quincy. “I'm a special partner, you know. I shall call on Mrs. Strout. You remember the party at Deacon Mason's, Alice--I danced with Miss Bessie Chisholm--” Mrs. Hawkins couldn't wait, “Yes, an' she made the perfesser just the kind of wife he needed. She bosses the house... for I heard her tell him one day that if he didn't like her cookin' he might have his meals at the store--an' she goes to dances with her brother Sylvester. Some folks think she's a high-flyer--but I don't blame her seein' as how she has that old blowhard for a husband--which is true, if he is your pardner.” Alice asked if the Strouts had any children. “Yes, they've got a little boy, an' he's a chip of the old block. His father brought him here one day and he pulled the cloth of'n that table there and broke a chiny vase that I paid fifty cents for, and his father never said a word about buyin' me another.” “I hope that Mr. Strout and Hiram get along together well,” said Quincy. “Hiram's a good feller. Mandy did well when she got him, but she has you to thank for it, Mr. Sawyer. If you hadn't set him up in that grocery store I'm afraid he'd be chorin' now. You remember Mrs. Crowley? She jes' loves them children, but Mandy's afeerd she's going to lose her. She's got a beau--a feller named Dan Sweeney, and his hair is so red you could light a match by techin' it. He works for your brother 'Zeke. He's a good enuf feller, but he and Strout don't hitch horses. You see he was in the same regiment with the Perfesser an' he knows all about him, same as you found out, and Strout don't talk big afore him. The fact is, the Perfesser hain't many friends. There was Abner Stiles. They two used to be as thick as molasses, but since Strout wouldn't give him the job in the grocery that he'd promised him, Abner's gone back on him.” “Does Uncle Ike board with Mandy now?” Alice knew that he did, but wished Mrs. Hawkins' view of the strange doings of her uncle. “Yes, he's there--goin' on eighty-two and chipper as a squirrel. He's got religion Mandy says, and so many kinds that she don't know which one he's got the most of.” Quincy looked at his watch. “Mrs. Hawkins, we're going up to Ezekiel's house. We shall stay to supper, but will get back before you lock up--ten o'clock, isn't it?” “No such hours in a hotel. We're allus open till twelve, and sometimes all night--when it pays. It's a hard life, but you know what's goin' on an' that's considruble for a woman who's tied up in the house as I am.” CHAPTER V 'ZEKE PETTINGILL'S FARM