"Well, I'll be--surprised," was the answer. As Jim looked in astonishment the door was opened and a dapper little man with a fuzzy red beard appeared. "Good morning, gentlemen, good morning!" he said, in a perfectly good Yankee twang. "Can I do anything for you to-day in my line? Step in, gentlemen; I'm John Higginbotham." They entered and, behind the desk, sighted a stout woman of medium size, middle age, and moderately good appearance. "Hannah, these are two of our fellow townsfolk, calling. Excuse me, gentlemen, I didn't get your names." He was enlightened and prattled on: "Oh, Reverend Hartigan and Dr. Carson. Good! Healing for the body and healing for the soul, and my healing is for the estate--happy trinity, isn't it? Sit down, gentlemen." "Can we do anything for you in our line?" said the buxom lady behind the desk, in a strong, deep voice; and now Jim noticed for the first time her square jaw and her keen eye that brightened as she spoke. "Not at present, thank you," said Jim. "We are merely making a neighbourly call." "The fact is," said Dr. Carson, "the thing that stopped us this morning was your new signboard." "There! There! I told you so; I told you it was good business," said the little man. "The first thing in commerce is to have a good article and the next is to win the attention of the public. I felt sure it was a good move." "You've got the attention of the whole town at one stroke," said Carson. "If you have the wares to follow it up----" "Wares! My company is The Merchants' Mutual. It is the----" Realizing that he had injudiciously turned on a hydrant, Carson said heartily: "Oh, yes, yes; of course; I should have known. Why, every one knows that The Merchants' Mutual is one of _the_ companies. How did you come in, by rail or by the trail?" At this point, Hannah rose and, passing out of the door, gave a momentary glimpse of a kitchen stove with pots and kettles boiling. John smiled blandly, raised a flat hand with an oratorical gesture: "Ah, that is an important question, and bears directly on the signboard. You see, we came from Bootlebury, Massachusetts. Hannah's father was quite a man in that town, and I worked my way up till I had a little insurance office of my own and married Hannah. Well" (he didn't say "well" and he didn't say "wall," but there isn't any in-between way to spell it aright), "if I'd got all the insurance business in Bootlebury, it would not have been horses and cushions, but I didn't get half of it, and Hannah says, 'John, I think we'd getter go out West,' for, somehow, she didn't want to stay in a place where folks said she'd had a 'come down.' "We'd had about ten years of it, and I had just about come to her way of thinking when her dad died and left her quite well fixed. An' Hannah she had quite an eye to biz; she worked at my office desk as much as she did at the cook stove; an' now she says to me, 'Here is where we get out.'