Now, how could you refuse a person as bold as that? Besides, Harris was a "paying guest" and she did not want to offend him! So Lyddy bowed demurely and young Colesworth hopped in.
"Let 'em go, Lucas!" he cried. "Now, this is what _I_ call a mighty nice little family party--I don't see Somers in it."
At that Lucas laughed so he could scarcely hold the reins. But Lyddy only looked offended.
"Stop your silly giggling, Lucas," commanded 'Phemie, fearful that her sister would become angry and "speak out in meeting." "I want to know all about this Mrs. Harrison."
"Is that where you're bound--to the Widow Harrison's?" asked Harris. "I have been told that our new friend, Professor Spink, has sold her out--stock, lock, and barrel."
"Is _that_ who is making her trouble?" demanded 'Phemie, hotly. "I _knew_ he was a mean man."
"Well, he was a bad man to go to for money, I reckon," agreed Harris.
"Bob Harrison didn't mortgage his place to Jud Spink," explained Lucas. "No sir! He got the money of Reuben Smiles, years ago. And he and his widder allus paid the intrust prompt."
"Well--how did it come into Spink's hands?"
"Why--I dunno. Guess Spink offered Smiles a bonus. At any rate, the original mortgage had long since run out, and was bein' renewed from year to year. When it come time for renewal, Jud Spink showed his hand and foreclosed. They had a sale, and it didn't begin to pay the face of the mortgage. You see, the place had all run down. Bob hadn't turned a stroke of work on it for years before he died, and the widder'd only made shift to make a garden.
"Wal, there was a clause covering all personal property--and the widder had subscribed to it. So now the sheriff is going to have a vendue an' see if he kin satisfy Jud Spink's claim in full. Dunno what _will_ become of Mis' Harrison," added Lucas, shaking his head. "She's quite spry, if she is old; but she ain't got a soul beholden to her, an' I reckon she'll be took to the poor farm."
The boys sat in the buckboard and talked earnestly while Lyddy and 'Phemie Bray "visited" with the Widow Harrison. She was a tall, gaunt, sad woman--quite "spry," as Lucas had said; but she was evidently troubled about her future.
Her poor sticks of furniture could not bring any great sum at the auction, which was slated for the next Monday. She admitted to the Bray girls that she expected the money raised would all have to go to the mortgagee.