T JL MRS.TUBBS MARGARET SIDNEY SALLY MRS. TUBES SALLY MRS. TUBES By MARGARET SIDNEY AUTHOR OF "FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS, AND How THEY GREW," " OLD CONCORD : HER HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS," "A LITTLE MAID OF CONCORD TOWN," "WHITHER WITH THE CHILDREN," ETC. LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY BOSTON Norfoootr tyres* J. a. Gushing & Co. - Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. P5 1 To all who love simplicity, truth, and cheerfulness 91S281 CONTENTS PAGE " One Two .......... Three ......... 63 Four .......... 88 Five .......... 1C1 Si, .......... 12 Seven ......... 189 Eight ......... 15S SALLY MRS. TUBES SALLY, MRS. TUBES ONE E atmosphere was charged, so to speak, with such solid sat- isfaction when Miss Sally Plunkett emerged from the humble dwelling of the justice of the peace as Mrs. Abijah Tubbs, that it seemed the controlling element for the whole country- side. It had been " up and early " to get their work done, with all the neighbours who meant to be present at the virgin attrac- tions of Miss Sally's entry into Justice Spender's office, and it was " get there quick" also with all the small boys and smaller girls who had counted on the show ever since the engagement was announced. For Miss Sally had in the short time 11 12 SALLY, MBS. TUBES between her betrothal and its consumma- tion in marriage, made diligent use of all possible verbal channels to spread the infor- mation as to every detail of her union with the man of her choice. " I ain't got much time to git ready in, an* that's a fact, but if I wait, I won't nerve him up to it again, most likely, an' it's better to git a husband than to have more clothes an' fixin's. Mrs. Tubbs won't that sound grand, though ! " She tossed her head, at that moment try- ing on the wedding bonnet, a splendid affair, with its bright green ostrich feather observ- ing the correct angle ; its wreath of pink roses, and the final glory of its long, white cotton veil of a sprawling pattern that till that day had reposed as a curtain on the shelf of the village storekeeper. " Ain't I just delicious ! " stalking back and forth in front of the big, cracked Plunkett looking-glass. SALLY, MRS. TUBES 13 " I wish to goodness 'twas to-day an' I was sure an' fast Mrs. Tubbs. You never can be pos'tive about these men. My ! sech a' sight o' trouble as I've had to land 'Bijah ! An' he not much bigger'n a pint cup. But then, he's a man, an' I'll be a merried woman 's much as if he was sizable like other folks. Then, says I, see 'em bow an' say, < Good mornin', Mrs. Tubbs.' " She courtesied to the right and to the left, in response to these future salutations, the green feather waving in unison and the sprawling figures of the cotton lace veil making a brave show on either side of her spare, autumnal figure. " Sally, what do you want to git merried fer ? " her intimate friend and neighbour, the widow Panks, asked when the sudden news of the matrimonial intentions of Miss Plunkett thrilled the entire community. " We know 'Bijah Tubbs don't have nothin' to do with gittin' it up." 14 SALLY, MRS. TUBES "No," said Sally, calmly, "he don't; not a mite. An' such a sight o' trouble as I've had, Mis' Panks, to bring him round to it." She leaned her long arms on the top rail of the fence dividing their dwellings, and gazed into the widow's face opposite for a chance gleam of sympathy. " You must 'a' had," assented Mrs. Panks, filliping a belated ant from the rail with a red forefinger ; " but why on earth couldn't you 'a' let him alone, Sally ? 'Bijah hain't never hurt no one, an' he'd ought to be let to go his own way." "Well, he ain't goin' to be let alone," declared Sally, "an' I'm goin' to be Mrs. Tubbs. We'll be merried Sat' day at Jus- tice Spender's. You tell everybody, Mis' Panks there ain't no time fer me to go round an' invite folks. Say, I want 'em to be out on the road an' see us go in, an' afterward we'll all march, 'Bijah an' me Mrs. Tubbs at top, in percession to my SALLY, MRS. TUBES 15 house, an' I'll have cake an' lem'nade set out fer a treat." It was impossible to interrupt this an- nouncement, for it gushed out with such jubilant force. "Sat day!" screamed the widow when she got her breath. "Why, it's only Thurs- day, to-day, Sally Plunkett ! " " I know ; we'd been merried to-morrow, but fer that. A Friday my sakes ! it's bad enough to have 'Bijah Tubbs fer life, without no more calamities." " What in the world did you take up with him fer, anyway, Sally?" demanded Mrs. Panks. " Because I couldn't be a merried woman without him," said Miss Plunkett, bringing her pale green eyes fully to bear on her friend in astonishment at the question. " P'r'aps some one else would 'a' happened along, Sally," observed Mrs. Panks, casting a deep line of thought in her mind. " You 16 SALLY, MRS. TUBES ain't but forty-eight, an' if you'd 'a' waited, you " " Yes, I be ; forty-nine last Washin' ton's birthday," interrupted the bride-elect. "I tell you, I ain't a-goin' to wait till I'm fifty; an', besides, 'Bijah might die, an' then where'd I be? I couldn't never be Mrs. Tubbs." Her long, spare cheek turned pale at the thought; and Mrs. Panks ducked her round face to escape the right- eous indignation that leaped from Miss Plunkett's eyes. "Well, somebody else might 'a' come along," she repeated by way of soothing. " No, they wouldn't. There ain't a mite o' use in your standin' there an' tellin' me that, Nancy Panks, an' you know it. 'Bijah is my only chance, an' I've took him, 'cause I ain't goin' to be an' old maid, an' I will be if I strike fifty unmerried. An', besides, when I die, I'm goin' to have ' relict ' on my tomb. I've just set my heart on that." SALLY, MRS. TUBES 17 " You may be took first," observed Mrs. Panks, dryly. " P'r'aps so ; there ain't no use in opposin' th' Lord's will, an' you know me, Nancy, that I ain't one that wants to. But I'll be Mrs. Tubbs, the beloved wife of Abijah Tubbs, so my tombstone is goin' to look nice, any way you fix it. Well, you all be there at nine o'clock Sat' day mornin' sharp." "It's a pity 'Bijah ain't a leetle grain nearer your size, Sally," said Mrs. Panks, her small black eyes roving up and down the long, angular frame before her. "I don't feel no call to be complainin' o' Providence that He didn't make 'Bijah bigger," observed Miss Plunkett. "I'm thankful enough fer half a loaf if I can't git a whole one; an' that th' Lord give me th' opportunity o' gittin' 'Bijah at all. So you be sure you tell all the folks. Land sakes, an' here I stand an' my weddin' fixin's not begun!" 18 SALLY, MRS. TUBES " Don't you want me to help you make your cake, Sally ? " asked Mrs. Panks, itch- ing for the revelations of the little three- roomed cottage, that such an intimate association in work might unfold. "No, I don't," declared Miss Sally, shortly, "an' you ain't a-goin' to catch a squint at my weddin' gown an' bunnit, nor so much as a pinhead of nothin' till you see me start fer th' justice's. You needn't think it, Nancy." " I wasn't a-thinkin' o' that, Sally," be- gan Mrs. Panks, much offended. "Oh, yes, you were; but all the same you don't do it. I tell you how you may help if you want to. You git your young ones to pick a lot o' daisies an' green things an' bring here. I'm a-goin' to have a mer- riage bell in my parlour to stand under, 'Bijah an* me, when we git home an' you all come up to say, ' How do you do, Mrs. Tubbs?'" She made such a marvellous SALLY, MRS. TUBES 19 courtesy, picking up each side of her blue checked gown, that Mrs. Panks stood on tiptoe to peer over the fence railing to view the whole performance. "I can't never do that, Sally," she gasped ; " I sh'd tumble on my nose." "Do the best you can," counselled Miss Plunkett, coming up to her own height serenely; "th' Lord never intended any one to do more, I guess. An' a tub must roll, I s'pose, to th' end of its days. Well, good-by; remember an' git them flowers; it's the last request of Sally Plunkett," and she disappeared within her virgin dwelling. The desire for this floral display, along with all the other details of Miss Plunkett's courtship and coming marriage, spreading to all quarters, naturally was exploited in the corridors and on the piazzas of the vil- lage inn, filled with its usual quota of sum- mer boarders. Some of them had known 20 SALLY, MRS. TUBES Miss Plunkett for many seasons, as she had the reputation of doing up shirt waists bet- ter than any other village woman. The innkeeper fanned the flame of curious in- quiry set going by Miss Sally's conquest, and gladly dished up all the gossip of the place. Old Ira Plunkett, stern, hard-fisted, and hard-headed, had yet such a code of morals as prevented him from taking ad- vantage of the evident desire of his father, who didn't have the ability to express it clearly in his will, that Ira should have the farm. The lawyers easily made this fact apparent. Ira would have none of it if there was a quibble to which his good-for- nothing brother Abram, many years his junior, could hitch an objection. He dropped the farm where he had toiled as a slave till his fortieth year, like a hot potato, so to speak, and with his daughter (his wife had died some years before) re- tired to a cabin on the village edge, from SALLY, MRS. TUBES 21 which he saw his brother sell the old farm at auction, pocket the gains, cursing be- cause they were not larger, and depart without a farewell word, to lose himself in the big world. Ira Plimkett shut his mouth fast and uttered no syllable while he " buckled to " and did jobs for the farmers and got on somehow. And Sally scraped and pinched ; and here after thirty years she was eking out a scanty living by washing for the sum- mer boarders. "I tell you, sir," the innkeeper would bring his hand down smartly on the guests' registry book, while detailing the story to some after-dinner smoker, "Ira Plunkett's heart was clean broke all that twenty year (he died some ten year back). I used to see him a-standin' on th' edge of th' south medder many a Sunday afternoon, an Irishman bought th' farm; didn't know how to work it, sold off th' best part, 22 SALLY, MRS. TUBES and th' rest of course all ran down at th' heel, an' such a look on th' old man's face ! An' as soon as he see me, he'd step up, an' begin talkin' about th' sermon, an' th' weather, an' th' crops, an' th' Lord knows what all. An' you'd think he owned th' whole town, to see how ca'm he was." "What about Miss Sally?" queried the boarder; "she's a character, isn't she?" " I sh'd say," responded Boniface. " Well, Sally took care of her father. I guess, with all his ca'mness, he warn't none too easy to manage ; an' th' last few years of th' old man's life he was bedrid, an' died hard, that was ten year ago, as I said before, an' she had an awful tough time." " Well, I'm glad she's going to have hap- piness at last," observed the boarder, lightly. The innkeeper grinned. " Yes, she'll be Mrs. Tubbs an' that's enough fer her; she hates an old maid like p'isen." SALLY, MRS. TUBES 23 "Is this Mr. Tubbs a fair sort of man, Mr. Barlow?" propounded the summer guest. Mr. Barlow whistled. "Well, you can't 'xactly call him a man, bein' he's about big enough for a good half o' one. Why, he's just 'Bijah Tubbs. Hain't you seen him about here, Mr. Russell?" No ; Mr. Russell could not call to mind any one who had been designated in his presence by that cognomen. " Sho is that so ? I thought everybody knew 'Bijah. He's a stand-by in Hillsboro ; his father an' gran'father lived an' died here; his fambly's good. But bein' small, he hain't had no call to git up an' git, I s'pose, an' so he just does odd jobs. But he's always to church stiddy as Sunday comes, an' puts five cents in th' contribu- tion box; I know, 'cause I take one round. An' some other folks with bustin' big farms hain't souls above pennies." Mr. Barlow's 24 SALLY, MRS. TUBES rubicund countenance glowed deeper in scorn. Mr. Russell, with the thought of suggest- ing to his wife that the ladies should get up a good "send-off" for Miss Plunkett, was turning away, when Mr. Barlow called out, " Here's 'Bijah now ! he's comin' to git th' mail bag." A little spare man, who was made less in height by a deprecating stoop of the shoulders, shambled up the inn steps and along the piazza. It was impossible to see his eyes, for they were downcast and over- shadowed by the brim of his straw hat dragged well down over them. The lower part of his small, thin countenance being ob- scured by his collar, into which it had slunk, not much advantage could be gained by any attempt to compass his face. Mr. Russell went out and met him, to say pleasantly, " Good morning." " Mornin'," said Mr. Tubbs. SALLY, MRS. TUBES 25 "Do you think we are going to have rain? " Mr. Russell filliped the ashes carelessly from his cigar end and glanced at the clouds. "We may an' we may not," said Mr. Tubbs. I d'no." "I trust it will not rain to-morrow, on your wedding day. And let me congratu- late you, Mr. Tubbs. I hear nothing but good of Miss Plunkett." A look of abject terror possessed the little man. " It's dretful hard on me." He shook all over. "She is such a good woman," said the summer boarder, reassuringly. "You are lucky to get her." " She would have it so," cried Mr. Tubbs, who in his misery seemed delighted to talk. " She's ben at me fer years. An' I told her ' No ' every time." " Well, I am sure it is better for you to be married. You will have some one to take care of you." 26 SALLY, MRS. TUBES " I don't want to be took care of." He almost snarled it out. " I was well enough, if she'd only let me alone." " They say she is a fine cook," observed the gentleman, carelessly. " She must be, judging from some specimens of her work when she helped Mrs. Barlow the other day." Abijah Tubbs's little pale eyes gleamed. " That's th' only part that suits me about th' hull thing," he said at last. "Now you must make her happy, Mr. Tubbs," said the summer boarder, with a keen glance. " The ladies are all very fond of Miss Plunkett. She's a good soul, and you must make her a good husband." "She might 'a' let me alone," said Abijah, returning to the charge, all his terrors fresh upon him at the word " husband." And the landlord shaking the mail bag at him from the doorway, he shuffled off with it. "What shall we get her?" The girls crowded around Violet Van Wyck on the SALLY, MRS. TUBES 27 veranda steps of the inn. The young men poured into her hands the collection they had taken up. " Spoons spoons ! " declared Violet. "It's the dearest wish of her heart to possess real silver spoons." "Except to be Mrs. Tubbs," some one cried out. " Here's a five-dollar bill ! " cried one of the girls, poking in the heap of money. "Oh and a ten!" " That's from Mr. Russell," said Charley Van Wyck, balancing himself on the piazza railing. "I collected that " "Thirty-one dollars and seventy-five cents," announced Violet. "Oh oh! there's enough for both! Mrs. Russell and mamma give the cake and lemonade, you know." " Both what ? " cried the group. " I heard her say once she'd give any- thing to have a ' Pilgrim's Progress,' full 28 SALLY, MRS. TUBES of pictures, on her centre-table. Now, one of you must go into town this afternoon and buy it." " Charles Augustus, it's up to you," cried one of the men. " Not much ! " declared Charles Augustus, dangling his feet from the railing. " Oh, come on, Mr. Van Wyck," cried Bessie Beach, rushing up to him. " A lot of us will go with you. It will be such a lark." But Charles Augustus still surveyed them all calmly from his perch, protesting he wouldn't go one inch. " Only one must go," declared Violet. " The rest of us have to make the marriage bell. We are going to carry it over to her in the morning, you know." "No one seems to volunteer," observed Charles Augustus, dryly. Miss Van Wyck did not look at any one in particular, but consulted the little tablet on SALLY, MRS. TUBES 29 her chatelaine. A young man on the edge of the circle seemed to feel some subtile sum- mons, however, for he said presently, " I'll go ; any other commands for the town ? " and was well repaid as she lifted her blue eyes, albeit the fun over the " marriage bell " would be lost to Richard Blair. " Sally, ain't you 'feared he won't come at all ? " It was an awful whisper the widow Panks emitted, and distinctly recognisable to all the company assembled in Miss Sally's yard. It was five minutes past nine o'clock Saturday morning. " Nancy Panks, ye are a fool ! " said the bride-elect. Then she craned her long neck to search the roadway. "I'll go after him," screamed Johnny Panks, eagerly, "I'll go ! " More than one young man boarder volunteered to corral the bridegroom. " Much obleeged," said Sally with a pleas- ant bow, the cotton lace veil sweeping the 30 SALLY, MRS. TUBES ground. " Johnny Panks, you take care o' your ma, an' wait till you're spoken to be- fore you git presumptions. It's best fer me to go myself." She plucked up her gown on either side, and stalked off toward the miserable little shanty her prospective hus- band called home. Left behind, the guests invited to join the wedding procession had nothing to do but to watch her as long as the nature of the road permitted. Sally's chief ambition being the wedding veil and the bonnet from which it depended, there had been little time to spend on the wedding gown, and still less money. "What odds?" she said to herself happily, " th' veil's th' main thing ; an' it's big-flowered, so th' most el'gant frock in th' world wouldn't show through much." She therefore brought forth her best gown, a red merino. She had packed it away in camphor against the moths, and SALLY, MRS. TUBES 31 now brushed it up carefully again. It was a very hot day, but that made no difference in the contentment with which she viewed it. The bonnet worn for so many seasons that she had forgotten to count them, de- lighted her beyond expression. "It's per- fectly beautiful," she cried again and again as she surmounted it with the veil and placed upon that the bright pink wreath of roses and the green feather. " I sh'd never know 'twarn't brand new." She now stepped forth as we have seen, if not with happy, at least with determined footsteps, and just as hope was beginning to be abandoned by the wedding party, ap- peared over the brow of the hill. Abijah Tubbs was with her. " All right," announced Sally, on regain- ing them. " Come, 'Bijah, you an' me must go first." Mrs. Panks and family marched next to Miss Plunkett and Mr. Tubbs, as befitted 32 SALLY, MRS. TUBES the great intimacy for years over the well- worn fence. At the last minute there was a commotion in the widow's brood, and little Susan rushed forth and ran to Sally. " I'm goin' with you," she piped, and clutched the wedding veil. There was an awful pause, broken by the shout from the dismayed widow : " Come back, Susan. Oh, my land o' liberty ! " "I'll bring her," volunteered again Johnny. Sally started when the sacrilegious hand was laid on her wedding veil, looked down with a black frown on her brow, to see two tears rolling off small Susan's cheeks and her underlip quivering. She was the child whom Miss Plunkett had helped pull through the scarlet fever. "Let her alone," she said grimly, " 'twon't be so impressive likely, but Susan's comin' with me. There, child, you mus'n't take holt o' my veil ; that ain't proper." SALLY, MRS. TUBES 33 She untwisted the little grimy fingers. Su- san immediately grasped the red merino gown, and wiped her tears on its front breadth. It wasn't quite like a circus procession, be- cause there weren't really any wild animals, if we except the irrepressible small boy furnished alike by Hillsboro and the sum- mer-boarder element. Some of the young men of the inn contingent would have equalled their endeavours ; but Miss Violet Van Wyck, failing to discover any great amount of fun in unseemly proceedings, the procession moved onward with much deco- rum. When they all halted at Justice Spender's, Miss Plunkett turned around, telling 'Bijah to do the same. Little Susan whirled with her, still clinging to her gown. " I can't ask all o' you to go in," said Sally. " My ! Mis' Spender'd be crazy at our trackin' up her floor, even if ye could 34 SALLY, MRS. TUBES git in. But I want some witnesses, so I s'pose, Nancy Panks, I'll have to ask you an' your fam'ly, to save th' peace. An' there's Miss Vi'let, I couldn't never be merried without her; an' her ma, an' her pa I want them." " I wish I'd treated the old girl with at- tention," groaned Charley Van Wyck. " An' Mr. Barlow ; 'tain't proper to leave him out, 'cause Mr. Tubbs has carried th' mail bag so long; an' I want Mis' Barlow. Well, I guess that's enough." Although there were several candidates to her favour, who considered they had claims, and thereby endeavoured to press them, Miss Plunkett closed debate, mar- shalled in Mr. Tubbs, who was now trem- bling visibly and it seemed to him very audibly; the lucky ones invited to the ceremony followed, and the little justice closed the door. Miss Plunkett emerged as Mrs. Tubbs, SALLY, MRS. TUBES 35 her long face wreathed in smiles. Mr. Tubbs, by whom up to the last moment hopes of final escape had been indulged, now sank into a settled despair that bent his little body and drooped his neck. " He ought to have used wool soap," ob- served one of the irreverent young men, "see how he's shrunk!" They had been married with the ring, Sally insisting on that. She had instructed Mr. Tubbs all about it on the engagement day before starting on their way to get the marriage license ; and exhibited, after much unrolling of tissue paper, a broad golden circlet that just fitted her toil-worn finger. "I bought it a good many years ago, 'Bijah, so 's to have it ready in case I did git a husband. An' I'm sure 'tain't fair to 'xpect you'd buy one, when you don't want to git merried." " No, I don't," said the truthful 'Bijah. "An* so it's all ready," observed the 36 SALLY, MRS. TUBES bride-elect, cheerfully. "Now when Jus- tice Spender stops fer you to put it on my finger, I'll give ye a nudge, so ye can't help but understand." The ring now shone brightly on Mrs. Tubbs's hand, from the finger devoted to that purpose. The Panks children told afterward that Mr. Tubbs dropped it twice ; there had been much scuffling into corners after it. At last it was safely installed as sign and sym- bol of the union of Tubbs and Plunkett. " An' now all foller in percession to my house," cried Mrs. Tubbs from the Spender doorstep. "Me an' my husband, Mr. Tubbs, will stan' under th' merriage bell an' give you a reception with cake an' lem'nade. No, no, Nancy Panks," the widow's family all crowding to get next to the newly married pair, " 'tain't proper fer you to march first after us goin' back. Justice Spender, seein' he's made us one, an' his wife, must go next. Come, Justice ; come, Mis' Spender." SALLY, MRS. TUBES 37 The widow could not conceal her vexa- tion, and took pains to inform her next neighbour that she never " see such an in- sult; an' I'd much drather V been first after Mis' Tubbs than first after Sally Plunkett." And she should take her chil- dren out of the procession and go home cross lots. Hearing which, Mrs. Tubbs turned her head enough to say, " Don't be a fool, Nancy ! " This old-time counsel struck so familiarly upon the unwonted excitement that Mrs. Panks swallowed her desperate resolve, and arrived at the bride's home quite cooled off. Her spirits were further upborne by the invitation from Mrs. Tubbs to preside over the lemonade pail. It had been thought best, considering the limitations of the cottage, to have the re- freshments outside. The clotheslines, the usual and absorbing features of Sally's yard, had been taken down; and the tubs were 38 SALLY, MRS. TUBES utilised by turning them upside down on the bench beside the door, to lay a long board across them. On this were set the pail of lemonade, and a motley array of cups and glasses borrowed from all the houses not ex- empt by distance. To collect them, Johnny Panks had been hired by promises of a large number of pieces of wedding cake and a corresponding number of glasses of lemon- ade ; and he did the job by means of Sally's cart, in which the washing for the inn boarders was collected and returned. Mrs. Barlow served the cake from Sally's ironing table brought out from the kitchen. The stream of callers passing into the parlour to salute the bride and groom under the marriage bell were carefully instructed by Sally to march around the centre-table and see the presents. The real silver spoons were set upon its polished surface, like the spokes of a wheel ; the illustrated " Pilgrim's Progress " in the middle. SALLY, MRS. TUBES 39 " I never see any thin' so nice," said Mrs. Tubbs, beaming on them all ; " there ain't nothin' more on earth f er me to wish f er ; Mr. Tubbs, you must give folks your right hand to shake." A murmur went around that the parson was coming. With great dignity he and Mrs. Elwood in her well-preserved black silk gown advanced from the road into the Plunkett yard. Just at this juncture, Mrs. Panks, much elated that the parson and his wife should see her social prominence behind the lemonade table, forgot to issue those incessant commands to her offspring to " keep away, or I'll spank you when I git you to home ! " She turned to effu- sively greet the distinguished visitors, Johnny Panks seized the supreme moment and lunged at the pail to help himself, one of the small brothers having been promised the first cupful when it should be time for the Panks household to be served, 40 SALLY, MRS. TUBES threw himself with righteous indignation upon the interloper over went the pail, and although Mrs. El wood received some of the lemonade, it afforded her no pleas- ure, for the most of it fell upon her best and only silk gown. The confusion of this episode reached Sally's ears under the "merriage bell." "No use to cry fer spilt lem'nade no more'n if 'twas spilt milk," she observed, " an' it's healthier to drink water, I really s'pose. Thank the Lord, th' well can't be tipped over. How d'ye do, Mis' Jones ? This is my husband, Mr. Tubbs." The day after the wedding made a good second show in the eyes of the entire vil- lage. The little church was crowded to see Mr. and Mrs. Abijah Tubbs come up the middle aisle in full bridal array. " Ye see that's another reason," Sally had said over the fence to the widow Panks, "why I'm goin' to have th' jus- SALLY, MRS. TUBES 41 tice merry us 'nstid o' th' parson. We'll have two percessions." Parson Elwood for once looked down into a sea of faces. He rejoiced that he had pulled out one of the early sermons in his barrel, on the doctrine of election, and he delivered it with much unction as one of his best. The deacons whispered excitedly, " There ain't enough contribution boxes some of us must take hats round." So Sally Plunkett's matrimonial venture worked well for the entire parish. TWO k AIN'T no use," said Mrs. Tubbs, shaking out a dainty muslin waist for one of the young ladies at the inn, " to stop my daily avocations so far 's I know, just because I got merried." She uttered this with the greatest nonchalance, and seemed to find difficulty in affixing the article in question to the clothesline. The wooden pin needed to be thrust over each sleeve, pulled out, and set in position again, before Sally, usu- ally so deft-fingered, could be satisfied. Meanwhile the new wedding ring was making a brave display, the bride's little finger quirking handsomely in the air. " No, 's I said before," at last the opera- 42 SALLY, MRS. TUBES 43 tion was considered finished; and Mrs. Tubbs brought her gaze to her visitor's face, " be- cause I'm a merried woman there ain't no call 's fur 's I see fer me to turn my back on my dooties ; so if you know of any more ladies up to th' Aotel, Mis' Femwyck" (Mrs. Tubbs always pronounced the sum- mer boarder's name as if it were one word, with the accent strongly on the first syl- lable), " who want washin' done, why Mis' Tubbs'll do it as well as Sally Plunkett ever did." It is impossible to describe the sweet unction with which Sally lingered over her new name. " I will try, Mrs. Tubbs," said Mrs. Van "VYyck, "to get you some more custom. I am sure everybody considers our gowns and waists to be perfectly laundered." " Mamma, I do believe Mrs. Harmer will want Mrs. Tubbs to do her baby's gowns," cried Violet Van Wyck, in a pretty enthu- 44 SALLY, MRS. TUBES siasm. "I'm going to ask her when we get back to luncheon." " Much obleeged," said Mrs. Tubbs, pick- ing up her clothes-basket. "Now come in an' set down, ladies, an' I'll show you how handsome th' flowers has kep'," leading the way to the cabin door. "Really?" cried Violet. " Oh, Mrs. Tubbs, have they lasted till now ? " "If we do not hinder your work, Mrs. Tubbs," suggested Mrs. Van "Wyck. " Land ! " exclaimed Mrs. Tubbs, hauling along the basket with her left hand, " I ain't one to let work git such a whip hand as to drive off good friends 'a you be, I guess. My wash is all out," and she pointed to the long, snow-white lines sway- ing in the summer breeze. " And how beautiful it all looks ! " ex- claimed Mrs. Van Wyck. " I should think you'd be very proud, Mrs. Tubbs, to achieve such fine work." SALLY, MRS. TUBES 45 " No, I ain't proud. It don't become us sinful mortals to harbour no pride," said Mrs. Tubbs, with a very elate countenance, and the left hand quite busy in pushing back a stray lock from her heated forehead, " an' I hain't done no more'n my dooty by them clothes, when all's said an' done," waving the same set of toil-worn fingers ; "but clothes is like folks you treat 'em well, an' they'll treat you well ; an' so they up and looks their best, an' folks goin' by says, ' There now/ Sally Plun Mrs. Tubbs had them in her washtub, I know.' " She slapped the basket down on the wooden bench just beside the door, by the tubs over which the early morning hours had been passed, waved her visitors within, wiped off two chairs with the cloth in her left hand, and then rested her palms on her hips, her favourite attitude in conversation. " As I was a-sayin', clothes is like folks, an' sometimes when I'm washin' 'em or 46 SALLY, MRS. TUBES hangin' 'em out, I fall to talkin' to 'em. There's one good thing they can't talk back. Why, I washed up Parson El wood's shirts all last winter. Old Betsy got sick with the rheumatiz, an' so Mis' Elwood brought 'em to me. An' didn't I gin it to them shirts good, though ! I tell you, I just mentioned my views on several p'ints o' doctrine old Dr. Elwood had been a- drivin' us hard on from th' pulpit. An' I gin it back to him through his clothes. I tell you, it tickled me to set an' look at them shinin' buzzoms Sundays. An' he must 'a' got some good from 'em bein' so near his skin, fer I ironed it all in hard." " I suppose you talked over some of those subjects with the parson himself," said Mrs. Van Wyck, with her well-bred little smile. Miss Violet played with the fringe of her parasol in her lap. " La, yes, whenever I got a chanst," de- clared Mrs. Tubbs ; " but there, how often SALLY, MRS. TUBES 47 did that come ? Onct in six months or so Parson El wood would heave along on a pas- toral call ; but I had hard work to git in my say-so. I tell you, Mis' F