"Well, that’s the way it goes! When a fella’s been cryin’ wolf for years an’ years, the chances are he’ll attrac’ some kinda thing his way, if it’s only a meazly little skunk, which is more embarrassin’ than dangerous. Meazles is a kinda come-down, for a party Hiram Parkinson’s age an’ ambitions. He’s been walkin’ around with, as you might say, one foot in the gravey,—poor soul! I bet it makes’m sore to feel he’s with both feet in the soup. Meazles! I guess I’ll send’m a glass or two o’ my slip-go-down jelly to cool his throat." "I guess he didn’t be expectin’ _that_, whatever it was he did be expectin’," Ma dropped complacently. "Well, you gener’ly get _sump’n_, if you expect it long enough. That’s why it’s up to us to be sure we like our order before it goes in, for in the end we’ll have to chew it, anyhow." Martha drew her chair to the center-table, seated herself, and taking paper, pen and a bottle of ink from the drawer, prepared to write. "Goin’ to write, Martha?" queried Ma, peering over at her curiously. "Looks like it, don’t it?" "A letter?" "Maybe, or else my last will an’ prayer-book, as they say." "I wonder——" "I guess if you’re goin’ to wonder out loud, Ma, you’ll have to do it later. I got to get this job off’n my hands right now, an’ between you an’ me an’ the lamp-post, I ain’t so flip with my pen an’ ink, I can do much of anythin’ fancy, _while you wait_. I got to take my time at it. It’s the hardest stunt I know of. Firstoff, you got to have somethin’ to write about, an’ then, before you’re fairly ready to put it down—what with delays, owin’ to spellin’, blots an’ so forth—it’s got away from you, an’ you have to think up somethin’ else in its place. While you’re doin’ that the next idea gets away, so you’re left, whatever way you look at it. Now, ’silence in the court-house,’ as Sammy says." Ma would have given all she was worth to discover what it was that, for the next couple of hours or so, Martha was so painfully employed upon. She did her best to find out, but though she craned her neck, ducked her head, peeked and peered, it was no use. A substantial elbow curved around the paper, effectually shielding it from inquisitive eyes.