"I guess not," he answered. "Why? The temptation isn't
getting too much for your honesty, is it?"
"No," with a sigh, "but I'm carryin' a forty dollar watch and wearin' a
ring that cost fifteen. I thought they was some punkins till I begun
to look at this stuff. Now they make me feel so mean and poverty-struck
that I expect to be took up for a tramp any minute. Mister," to the
clerk, "you run right along and wrap up that chain I was lookin' at.
Hurry! or I'll be ashamed to carry anything so cheap."
"Think she'll like it, do you, Jim?" he asked, when they were once more
out of doors with the purchase in his inside pocket.
"She ought, certainly," replied Pearson. "It's a beautiful thing."
"Yes. Well, you see," apologetically, "I wanted to give her somethin'
pretty good. 'Bije always did, and I didn't want to fall too fur behind.
But," with a chuckle, "you needn't mention the price to anybody. If
Abbie--my second cousin keepin' house for me, she is--if Abbie heard of
it she'd be for puttin' me in an asylum. Abbie's got a hair
breastpin and a tortoise shell comb, but she only wears 'em to the
Congregationalist meetin'-house, where she's reasonably sure there ain't
likely to be any sneak-thieves. She went to a Unitarian sociable once,
but she carried 'em in a bag inside her dress.
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