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As Things Happen
by
GLADYS FIST
"I tell you, I did not know that an old woman could eat so
much. Not that I begrudge it at all, but the funny thing is that
she doesn't think she has an appetite." Mrs. Laribee leaned for-
ward as she talked, so that the long beads which she wore about
her neck swung back and forth over her bosom.
Mrs. Cribs nervously looked at the old woman who sat
stiffly straight in a chair which stood in the corner, and then
said in a low voice, hardly moving her lips, "Don't, Clara, she'll
hear you." Her voice was so soft that it seemed to blend in
with the rain that rustled against the window pane.
"0, no, she won't-stone deaf, you know. You'd have
to yell all night before she'd even know you were talking. And
you know she's so inquisitive. Sometimes I think I'll go
crazy." She shook her heavy head with every word.
"Are you sure that she can't hear?" She still looked sus*-
piciously at the old woman, who was leaning forward expect-
antly, her thin white lips half parted, as though she expected
them to say something to her.
"Of course not; she can't hear a word. I hardly ever talk
to her, and when I do, I scream." Mrs. Laribee laughed at
her guest's ignorance.
"Well then, if that's the case, it's all right." She leaned
back restfully. "You say she eats a lot, just like a servant, I
suppose. Mine ate five pieces of bread last night with butter
and jelly too. I know; I saw what was left when she finished."
"What did you say, Clara?" The monotone voice of the
deaf woman broke through the room.
Mrs. Laribee neither answered her, nor turned her head
toward her, but went on talking to her friend. "See! See,
she's always interrupting that way; she seems to forget that
people come to see me, and not her."
"O, well," Mrs. Cribs looked at the old woman and sud-
denly grew compassionate. There was something pitiful about
her delicate, small face that made her think of her dog when
he had broken his leg. "She can't help it-being deaf, I mean.
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