Books or soap or tea, or whatever 'tis.
I don't want nothin'." After some strenuous minutes, the visitor managed to make it clear to Mrs.Beasley's mind that she was not a peddler.

She tried to add a word of further explanation, but it was effort wasted.
"'Tain't no use," snapped Debby, "I can't hear you, you speak so faint.
Wait till I get my horn; it's in the settin' room." Phoebe's wonder as to what the "horn" might be was relieved by the widow's appearance, a moment later, with the biggest ear trumpet her caller had ever seen.
"There, now!" she said, adjusting the instrument and thrusting the bell-shaped end under the teacher's nose.

"Talk into that.

If you ain't a peddler, what be you--sewin' machine agent ?" Phoebe explained that she had come some distance on purpose to see Mrs.
Beasley.

She was interested in the Thayers, who used to live in Orham, particularly in Mr.John Thayer, who died in 1854.