The woman gave another surprised stare.
"That's strange!" she said incredulously.
"Well"—moving away—"I'll write then; I am not going to pay for ten words when I want to send six."
"That is a specimen of the ignorance you were just speaking of, I presume," laughed Miss Archer, as soon as the would-be sender was out of hearing.
"Yes," replied Nattie, " its hard to make them believe sometimes that everything less than ten words is a stated price, and that we only charge per word after that number. And, speaking of ignorance, do you know I once actually had a letter brought me, all sealed, to be sent that way by telegraph."
Miss Archer laughed again, and Quimby inquired,
"I—I beg pardon, but did I understand that the last came within your experience?"
"Yes," Nattie replied, "and I had a young woman come in here once, who asked me to write the message for her, and after I had done so, in a somewhat hasty scrawl, she took it, looked it all over critically, dotted some 'i's,' and crossed some 't's,' I all the time staring, amazed, and wondering if she supposed I could not read my own hand-writ-
