"
"Hasn't it always been so?" asked 'Zekiel.
"Not a bit of it," said Strout. "In the old days, kings and queens and
princes used to search for modest merit, and when found they rewarded
it. Nowadays modest merit has to holler and yell and screech to make
folks look at it."
Hiram again appeared in the room, beckoning to the two occupants.
"Say, ain't you two comin' along?" he cried. "We've saved good places
for yer."
"Where's Mr. Sawyer?" asked 'Zekiel.
"Oh, he's goin' along with the crowd," said Hiram; "he's got a seat in
between Miss Putnam and Miss Mason, and looks as snug as a bug in a rug.
There's a place for you, Mr. Pettengill, between Miss Mason and Mandy,
and I comes in between Mandy and Mrs. Hawkins. Mandy wanted her mother
to go cuz she works so confounded hard and gits out of doors so seldom,
and there's a seat 'tween Mrs. Hawkins and Tilly James for the
Professor, and Sam Hill's t'other side of Tilly and nex' to S'frina
Cotton."
"I guess I can't go," said 'Zekiel. "The house is all alone, and I'm
kind of 'fraid thet thet last hoss I bought may get into trouble again
as he did last night.
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