"_Mrs. Lathrop_! 'f you don't beat anythin' 't I ever saw for puttin' words 't I never even dreamed of into other folks's mouths! 'S if I should ever think o' buyin' a new coat 'n' the price-tag not even dirty on the inside o' mine yet! I never said 't I was goin' to buy a coat,--I never thought o' goin' to buy a coat,--what I did say was 't I was goin' to _look at_ coats, an' the reason 't I'm goin' to look at coats is because I'm goin' to cut over the sleeves o' mine. I thought all last winter 't it was pretty queer for a woman 's rich 's I be to wear old-fashioned sleeves--more particularly so where I c'n easy cut a new sleeve crossways out o' the puffs o' the old ones. 'N' _that's_ why I want to look at coats, Mrs. Lathrop, for I ain't in the habit o' settin' my shears in where I can't see my way out." Mrs. Lathrop fingered a piece of rusty black silk and made no comment. "When I get done lookin' at coats, lookin' 't orphans 'll be jus' a nice change. If I see any 't I think might suit I'll take their numbers 'n' come home 'n' see about decidin', 'n' if I don't see any 't I like I'll come home jus' the same." The clock struck nine. Mrs. Lathrop rose and gathered up her bag of pieces. "I mus' be goin' home," she said. "I was thinkin' that very same thing," said Susan, rising also. "It's our thinkin' so much the same't keeps us friends, I guess." Mrs. Lathrop sought her shawl and departed. * * * * * It was about a week later that the trip to town took place. The day was chosen to suit the opening of a most unprecedented Fire-Sale. Miss Clegg thought that the latest styles in coat-sleeves were likely to bloom broadcast on so auspicious an occasion, and Mrs. Lathrop herself was sufficiently infected by the advertising in the papers to dare to intrust her friend with the whole of a two-dollar bill to be judiciously invested if bargains should really run as wildly rife as was predicted. Susan departed very early and did not get back till very late--so late in fact that her next-door neighbor had the time to become more than a little anxious as to the possibilities of some mischance having befallen her two-dollar bill. But towards eight o'clock signs of life next door appeared to the anxious watcher in the Lathrop kitchen window, and one minute later she was on her way across. She found the front door, which was commonly open, to be uncommonly shut, and was forced to rap loudly and wait lengthily ere the survivor of the Fire-Sale came to let her in. Then when the door did open the figure which appeared in the opening was such as to startle even the phlegmatically disposed chewer of clover. "My heavens alive, Susan, whatever is the matter with--" Susan backed faintly into the hall so as to allow the other to enter. "I'm worn to a frazzle--that's all!" she said weakly and wearily. They turned into the parlor, where the lamp was burning, and Mrs. Lathrop gave a little frightened scream: