"Oh, yes! Well, she told me that quite a good many of the members of one of the congregations here rather resent the fact that the pastor of the other congregation is the chairman of my committee that's getting up the Christmas entertainment. And they aren't going to cooperate or let their children come either. There are two cliques, it seems, and they're both awfully cliquey." "A common fault of cliques, I believe. And what else?" "And she says some of the young people think our celebration is going to be too tame for them. So they're planning to import special music from over at the junction and throw a jazz party, as they put it, on the same night. It seems there's a barber over at the junction who plays the saxophone and he has an orchestra of four pieces; that's the one they're going to hire." "Every junction has a barber who plays the saxophone. But formerly the favored instrument was the guitar, though in exceptional cases the harmonica or mouth-organ might be preferred. Proceed, please; you interest me deeply." "And she says that there's a good deal of curiosity--_curiosity_ was the word she used--about our private lives. There actually seems to be a suspicion that we're some sort of refugees or fugitives or something, and that we're trying to ingratiate ourselves with the residents here in order to work some scheme on them later. At least she hinted that much. But this Miss Teasdale doesn't share in this sentiment at all. She said so several times. She said she only came up as a friend to let me know what was going on. She hasn't any ax to grind herself, she says. She doesn't believe in all this envy and jealousy, she says." "I don't believe the ax is her favorite weapon. I seem to picture her in the privacy of the home circle brewing a great jorum of poison-ivy tea. Perchance she revealed more?" "Quite a lot more. She says we're being imposed on shamefully in regard to the prices we're paying for things. She says we picked the wrong people to deal with and that if we'd just come to her first she could have saved us money. She says that Anna is charging us about three times what she'd expect from a neighbor for the same services. Still, I gather that there's a sort of feud between her and Anna, so she may be biased. And she says that this man Talbot--" "All of which reminds me. I had to order more firewood this morning. Due, I take it, to post-war conditions in Europe the price is now twelve dollars a cord. The egg market also shows an advance, influenced no doubt by disquieting advices from Morocco. Well, if we will meddle in world affairs we must pay the price."