"'If I could only _talk_ it,' she says, grieving, 'or I donno if I could even do that. What I want to say is in me, rarin' around my head like life, an' yet I can't get it out no more'n money out of a tin bank. I shall disgrace Sodality,' she says, wild. "'Cheer up,' says Libby Liberty, soothing. 'Nobody ever reads the editorials, anyway. I ain't read one in years.' "'You tend to your article,' snaps Mis' Sykes. "I had got my write-up of Silas all turned in to Riddy, and I was looking longing at Abagail's basket, when, banging the door, in come somebody breathing like raging, and it was Rob Henney, that I guess we'd all forgot about except it was Mis' Toplady that was waiting for him. "Rob Henney always talks like he was long distance. "'I come in,' he says, blustering, 'I come in to quit off my subscription to this fool paper, that a lot o' fool women--' "Mis' Sykes looks up at him out from under her hand that her head was resting on. "'Go on out o' here, Mr. Henney,' she says sharp to him, 'an' quit your subscription quiet. Can't you see you're disturbing us?' she says. "With that Mis' Toplady wheeled around on her high stool and looked at him, calm as a clock. "'Rob Henney,' says she, 'you come over here. I'll read you what I've wrote about you,' she told him. "The piece begun like this:-- "'Rob Henney, our esteemed fellow-townsman and milkman, was talked with this morning on his cow sheds. The reporter said to same that what was wanting would be visiting the stables, churn, cans, pans, and like that, being death is milked out of most cows if they are not kept clean and inspected regular for signs of consumption. Mr. Henney replied as follows: "'First: That his cows had never been inspected because nothing of that kind had ever been necessary. "'Second: That he was in the milk business for a living, and did the town expect him to keep it in milk for its health? "'Third: That folks had been drinking milk since milk begun, and if the Lord saw fit to call them home, why not through milk, or even through consumption, as well as through pneumonia and others? "'Fourth: That he would see the reporter--a lady--in the lake-that-burneth-with-fire before his sheds and churn and pans and cans should be put in the paper. "'Below is how the sheds, churn, pans, and cans look to-day....' And I tell you, Mis' Toplady, she didn't spare no words. When she meant What, she said What, elaborate. "I didn't know for a minute but we'd hev to mop Rob up off the clean floor. But Mis' Toplady she never forgot who she was. "'Either that goes in the paper to-night,' she says, 'or you'll clean up your milk surroundin's--pick your choice. An' Sodality's through with you if you don't, besides.' "'Put it in print! Put it in print, if you dast!' yells Rob, wind-milling his arms some. "'No need to make an earthquake o' yourself,' Mis' Toplady points out to him, serene.