"No," said the visitor, "I was to see her last week and I sha'n't go again for one while. Mrs. Brown 'n' me has been friends 'n' good friends for too many years to break off sudden, but still I never 'xpected 's she'd be one to try a new receipt on me 'n' never give me my choice's to whether I'd risk it or not until a good fifteen minutes after I'd swallowed the last bite. I can't feel anythin' but bitter still when I think of yesterday 'n' last night. I was sittin' there 's innocent 's a mule eatin' thistles, 'n' all of a sudden I felt to say, 'Mrs. Brown, did you put bakin' powder or yeast in that cake?' It was then 's she told me 't she'd up 'n' made it with suthin' 's a peddler throwed in at the door. 'Where's the label?' I says, puttin' my hand to where I felt the most need o' knowin' what in creation to come I had got in me. Well, Mrs. Lathrop, 'f she hadn't burned up the label; so there was nothin' f'r me to do but go home 'n' come nigh to dyin' of I did n't know what. I 've got a book, 'The Handy Family Friend,' 's tells what you 'd ought to take after you 've took anythin', 'n' I read it 'way through to see 'f there was any rule f'r when you don't know what you 've took, but there wa'n't no directions, 'n' so I jus' calmly spent the night hoppin' about like mad, 'n' I 'm free to confess 't there'll be a coolness in my feelin's towards Mrs. Brown henceforth. I ain't said nothin' direct to her herself, but I spoke my full mind to Mrs. Macy, 'n' Mrs. Macy give me to understand 's she should let Mrs. Brown know my sufferin's, 'n' I mentioned to Mr. Kimball 's I felt some hurt over bein' pierced to the core with cake 's nobody knowed what had raised it, 'n', although he laughed 'n' said mebbe Cain raised it, still I feel he 's safe to tell every one in town. I want 's every one sh'd know it. I consider 't when a woman goes to see another woman she 's unsuspectin' o' any new species o' cake-raisin', 'n' 'f there is any new species in the wind my view o' the matter is 's it 'd ought to be tried on somebody else 'n' not on me." Miss Clegg stopped and shook her head hard. "Where have you--" began Mrs. Lathrop. "Oh, that reminds me," said the caller with a sudden start. She paused a second, as if to gather force for the proper delivery of her next speech; a wondrous glow of unconscious but exalted triumph rose to her visage. "I went," she announced, her voice high-keyed with confidence as to what was about to fall upon the totally unprepared placidity of the unsuspecting Mrs. Lathrop,--"I went to post a letter to Cousin Marion!" Mrs. Lathrop's jaw dropped. A sudden and complete paralysis of all her faculties seemed to be the immediate effect of her friend's astounding communication. For a full half-minute there was silence in the kitchen while Susan rocked and enjoyed the sight of the havoc wrought by her speech. But at last Mrs. Lathrop gathered some fragments out of the wreck of her sensibilities and said feebly,--