Mr. Sawyer gave her two hundred dollars to buy her
things with, 'cause she's been so nice to him since he boarded at
Pettengill's."
"Who was that stylish lookin' lady that came in a carriage with the four
beautiful horses? I saw her outer the attic winder."
"She was a Mrs. Chessman," replied Mrs. Hawkins. I heern tell she's a
widder'd aunt of Mr. Sawyer's, and she's as rich as Creazers."
"How rich is that?" inquired Betsey, with an astonished look.
"Creazers," replied Mrs. Hawkins, with an expression that savored of
erudition, "was a man who was so all fired rich that he had to hire
folks to spend his money for him."
At that moment a step was heard in the dining-room, and both Mrs.
Hawkins and Betsy flew to wait upon the new-comer who proved to be Mr.
Quincy Adams Sawyer. As he took his seat at the table the Connecticut
clock on the mantelpiece struck ten.
At eleven o'clock that same morning Mr. Sawyer knocked at the front door
of Mr. Ezekiel Pettengill's residence. How strange it seemed, how much
more homelike it would have been to have entered by the back door and to
have come through the kitchen and dining-room, as of old.
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