“Do you suppose they’ll look after her down there?” Mrs. Carson began to carry on a conversation with a group of Baptist ladies waiting in the post office. She was the Baptist preacher’s wife.

“I’ve always heard it was lovely down there, but crowded,” said one.

“Lily lets people walk over her so,” said another.

“Last night at the tent show—” said another, and then popped her hand over her mouth.

“Don’t mind me, I know there are such things in the world,” said Mrs. Carson, looking down and fingering the tape measure which hung over her bosom.

“Oh, Mrs. Carson. Well, anyway, last night at the tent show, why, the man was just before making Lily buy a ticket to get in.”

“A ticket!”

“Till my husband went up and explained she wasn’t bright, and so did everybody else.”

The ladies all clucked their tongues.

“Oh, it was a very nice show,” said the lady who had gone. “And Lily acted so nice. She was a perfect lady—just set in her seat and stared.”

“Oh, she can be a lady—she can be,” said Mrs. Carson, shaking her head and turning her eyes up. “That’s just what breaks your heart.”

“Yes’m, she kept her eyes on—what’s that thing makes all the commotion?—the xylophone,” said the lady. “Didn’t turn her head to the right or to the left the whole time. Set in front of me.”

“The point is, what did she do after the show?” asked Mrs. Watts practically. “Lily has gotten so she is very mature for her age.”

“Oh, Etta!” protested Mrs. Carson, looking at her wildly for a moment.

“And that’s how come we are sending her to Ellisville,” finished Mrs. Watts.

“I’m ready, you all,” said Aimee Slocum, running out with white powder all over her face. “Mail’s up. I don’t know how good it’s up.”

“Well, of course, I do hope it’s for the best,” said several of the other ladies. They did not go at once to take their mail out of their boxes; they felt a little left out.

The three women stood at the foot of the water tank.

“To find Lily is a different thing,” said Aimee Slocum.

“Where in the wide world do you suppose she’d be?” It was Mrs. Watts who was carrying the letter.

“I don’t see a sign of her either on this side of the street or on the other side,” Mrs. Carson declared as they walked along.

Ed Newton was stringing Redbird school tablets on the wire across the store.

“If you’re after Lily, she come in here while ago and tole me she was fixin’ to git married,” he said.