Mrs. Samson often glanced disapprovingly at her great-granddaughter,
seated by her side in her utterly lax attitude. "Don't set so hunched
up," she whispered to her in a sharp hiss. She did not want Mr. John
Mangam, whom she regarded as a suitor of Sarah's, to have his attention
called to the girl's defects.

But Sarah had laughed softly, and replied, quite aloud, in a languid,
sweet voice, "Oh, it is so hot, grandma!"

"What if it is hot?" said the old woman. "You ain't no hotter settin' up
than you be slouchin'." She still spoke in a whisper, and Sarah had only
laughed and said nothing more.

As for Mrs. Wilford Biggs and her brother, Mr. John Mangam, they
maintained, as always, silence. Neither of the two ever spoke, as a
rule, unless spoken to. John was called a very rich man in Adams. He had
gone to the far West in his youth and made money in cattle.

"And how in creation he ever made any money in cattle, a man that don't
talk no more than he does, beats me," Mrs. Samson often said to her
granddaughter, Mrs. Lynn. She was quite out-spoken to her about John
Mangam, although never to Sarah. "It does seem as if a man would have to
say somethin', to manage critters," said the old woman.

Mr. John Mangam and Mrs. Wilford Biggs grated on her nerves. She
privately considered it an outrage for Mrs. Biggs to come over nearly
every evening and sit and rock and say nothing, and often fall asleep,
and for Mr. Mangam to do the same. It was not so much the silence as the
attitude of almost injured expectancy which irritated. Both gave the