"That if you listened to 'em, and done one thing for 'em, the next thing
they would want would be velvet-lined carriages to ride out in."

And the Agent, havin' jest seen the tenth funeral a-wendin' out of that
very house that week, and bein' a man of some sense, though hampered,
wrote back and said--"Carriages wouldn't be the next thing that they
would all want, but coffins."

He said sence he had wrote to Elnathan more than a dozen had been wanted
there in that very house, and the tenants had been borne out in 'em.

(And laid in fur cleaner dirt than they wuz accustomed to there;) he
didn't write this last--that is my own eppisodin'.

And agin the Agent mentioned the stairs, and agin he mentioned the
plumbin'.

But Elnathan wuz so interested then and took up in tryin' to decide
whether he would have a stained-glass angel or some stained-glass
cherubs a-hoverin' over the gallery in front of The Little Maid's room,
that he hadn't a mite of time to argue any further on the subject--so he
telegrafted--

"No repairs allowed. Elnathan Allen."

[Illustration: "No repairs allowed."]

Wall, Elnathan had got the repairs all made, and the place looked
magnificent.