"
"But she--" interposed Mrs. Lathrop, quickly.
"Well, but she knew he had a bullet in him 'n the Roman fever 'n' a
pension," said Susan, "she knowed she was pretty safe--I would n't blame
her under them circumstances. But that's neither here nor anywhere else,
Mrs. Lathrop, 'n' what with your interruptin' Lord knows when we will
get around to Rufus, for I keep forgettin' he 's dead 'n' rememberin'
him alive, 'n' no one as remembers Rufus Timmans alive could ever tell
anything about him, 'n' you know that as well as I do. Gran'ma Mullins
said herself to-day as he was a great problem to her in school, 'n' she
used to study him out of all comparison to the other children. Every one
admitted as he was superior, 'n' yet no one knowed jus' why. She says he
really _was_ superior in lots o' ways, 'n' he whittled her a open-work
ink-stand once for a Christmas as she 's used for toothpicks ever since,
but she says the inside o' his ideas was surely most amazin'. She says
she had him for two years, 'n' all she could say was as in all them two
years she was mostly struck dumb by him. She says she used to go up 'n'
talk to Tabitha, 'n' Tilda Ann used to come down 'n' talk with her, but
nothin' ever seemed to come of it. Tilda Ann declared up 'n' down as he
was a fool through 'n' through, 'n' poor Tabitha was awful nervous for
fear he 'd invent somethin' in bed some night as would surely blow the
house up. Seems he was so ahead at ten years old that he wanted to study
to be a chemist, 'n' so behind that he spelt it 'kemst,' 'n' him all of
ten years old.
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