第6章

The post-office was at Eldredge's store, and Eldredge's store, situated at the corners, where the Main Road and the Depot Road--which is also the direct road to South Denboro--join, was the mercantile and social center of Denboro.Simeon Eldredge kept the store, and Simeon was also postmaster, as well as the town constable, undertaker, and auctioneer.If you wanted a spool of thread, a coffin, or the latest bit of gossip, you applied at Eldredge's.The gossip you could be morally certain of getting at once; the thread or the coffin you might have to wait for.

I scarcely know why I went to Eldredge's that morning.I did not expect mail, and I did not require Simeon's services in any one of his professional capacities.Possibly Lute's suggestion had some sort of psychic effect and I stopped at the post-office involuntarily.At any rate, I woke from the trance in which the encounter with the automobile had left me to find myself walking in at the door.

The mail was not yet due, to say nothing of having arrived or been sorted, but there was a fair-sized crowd on the settees and perched on the edge of the counter.Ezra Mullet was there, and Alonzo Black and Alvin Baker and Thoph Newcomb.Beriah Doane and Sam Cahoon, who lived in South Denboro, were there, too, having driven over behind Beriah's horse, on an errand; that is, Beriah had an errand and Sam came along to help him remember it.In the rear of the store, by the frame of letter boxes, Captain Jedediah Dean was talking with Simeon.

Alvin Baker saw me first and hailed me as I entered.

"Here's Ros Paine," he exclaimed."He'll know more about it than anybody else.Hey, Ros, how many hired help does he keep, anyhow?

Thoph says it's eight, but I know I counted more'n that, myself.""It's eight, I tell you," broke in Newcomb, before I could answer.

"There's the two cooks and the boy that waits on 'em--""The idea of having anybody wait on a cook!" interrupted Mullet.

"That's blame foolishness."

"I never said he waited on the cooks.I said he waited on them--on the family.And there's a coachman--""Why do they call them kind of fellers coachmen?" put in Thoph.

"There ain't any coach.I see the carriages when they come--two freight cars full of 'em.There was a open two-seater, and a buckboard, and that high-wheeled thing they called a dog-cart."Beriah Doane laughed uproariously."Land of love!" he shouted.

"Does the dog have a cart all to himself? That's a good one! You and me ain't got no dog, Sam, but we might have a couple of cat-carts, hey? Haw! haw!"

Thoph paid no attention to this pleasantry."There was the dog-cart," he repeated, "and another thing they called the 'trap.' But there wan't any coach; I'll swear to it.""Don't make no difference," declared Alvin; "there was a man along that SAID he was the coachman, anyhow.And a big minister-lookin'

feller who was a butler, and two hired girls besides the cooks.

That's nine, anyhow.One more'n you said, Thoph.""And that don't count the chauffeur, the chap that runs the automobiles," said Alonzo Black."He's the tenth.Say, Ros,"turning to me, "how many is there, altogether?""How many what?" I asked.It was my first opportunity to speak.

"Why, hired help--servants, you know.How many does Mr.Colton keep?""I don't know how many he keeps," I said."Why should I?"The group looked at me in amazement.Thoph Newcomb voiced the general astonishment.

"Why should you!" he repeated."Why shouldn't you, you mean!

You're livin' right next door to 'em, as you might say! My soul!

If I was you I cal'late I'd know afore this time.""No doubt you would, Thoph.But I don't.I didn't know the Coltons had arrived until I came by just now.They have arrived, Itake it."

Arrived! There was no question of the arrival, nor of its being witnessed by everyone present, myself and the South Denboro delegates excepted.Newcomb and Baker and Mullet and Black began talking all together.I learned that the Colton invasion of Denboro was a spectacle only equaled by the yearly coming of the circus to Hyannis, or the opening of the cattle show at Ostable.

The carriages and horses had arrived by freight the morning before;the servants and the family on the afternoon train.

"I see 'em myself," affirmed Alonzo."I was as nigh to 'em as I be to you.Mrs.Colton is sort of fleshy, but as handsome a woman as you'd want to see.I spoke to her, too.'It's a nice day,' Isays, 'ain't it?'"

"What did she say?" asked Newcomb.

"She didn't say nothin'.Engine was makin' such a noise she didn't hear, I presume likely.""Humph!" sniffed Baker, evidently envious; "I guess she heard you, all right.Fellers like you make me tired.Grabbin' every chance to curry favor with rich folks! Wonder you didn't tell her you drove a fish-cart and wanted her trade! As for me, I'm independent.

Don't make no difference to me how well-off a person is.They're human, just the same as I am, and _I_ don't toady to 'em.If they want to talk they can send for me.I'll wait till they do.""Hope you've got lots of patience, Alvin," observed Mullet drily.

During the hilarity which followed, and while the offended apostle of independence was trying to think of a sufficiently cutting reply, I walked to the rear of the store.

Our letter box was Number 218, in the center of the rack, and, as Iapproached, I glanced at it involuntarily.To my surprise there was a letter in it; I could see it through the glass of the box door.Lute had, as I knew, got the mail the previous evening and the morning's mail had not yet arrived.Therefore this letter must have been written by some one in Denboro and posted late the night before or early that morning.It was not the custom for Denboro residents to communicate with each other through the medium of the post.They preferred to save the two cents stamp money, as a general thing.Bills sometimes came by mail, but this was the tenth, not the first, of the month; and, besides, our bills were paid.