"It was a dinner served at night.Yes.He took Mrs.Pryor in on his arm,and it was like a grand party,just as they fixed for themselves,alone.Waiters,and silver trays,and things carried in and out in courses.""My land!Well,I s'pose he had enough schoolin'to get him through it all right!"My mother's face grew red.She never left any one in doubt as to what she meant.Father said that "was the Dutch of it."And mother always answered that if any one living could put things plainer than the English,she would like to hear them do it.
"He certainly had,"said mother,"or they wouldn't have invited him to come again.And all mine,Mrs.Freshett,knew how to sit properly at the table,and manage a knife,fork and napkin,before they ever took a meal away from home.""No 'fence,"laughed Mrs.Freshett."I meant that maybe his years of college schoolin'had give him ways more like theirs than most of us have.For all the money it takes to send a boy to college,he ought to get somethin'out of it more than jest fillin'his head with figgers,an'stars,an'oratin';an'most always you can see that he does.""It is contact with cultivated people,"said mother."You are always influenced by it,without knowing it often.""Maybe you are,bein'so fine yourself,"said Mrs.Freshett.
"An'me too,I never get among my betters that I don't carry home a lot I put right into daily use,an'nobody knows it plainer.Icome here expectin'to learn things that help me,an'when I go home I know I have.""Why,thank you,"said mother."I'm sure that is a very nice compliment,and I wish I really could feel that it is well deserved.""Oh I guess you do!"said Mrs.Freshett laughing."I often noticed you makin'a special effort to teach puddin'heads like me somethin',an'I always thank you for it.There's a world in right teachin'.I never had any.So all I can pick up an'
hammer into mine is a gain for me an'them.If my Henry had lived,an'come out anything like that boy o'yourn an'the show he made last Sunday,I'd do well if I didn't swell up an'bust with pride.An'the little tow-haired strip,takin'the gun an'
startin'out alone after a robber,even if he wa'n't much of a man,that was downright spunky.If my boys will come out anywhere near like yourn,I'll be glad.""I don't know how my boys will come out,"said mother."But Iwork,pray,hope,and hang to them;that's all I know to do.""Well,if they don't come out right,they ought to be bumped!"said Mrs.Freshett."After all the chances they've had!I don'
know jest how Freshett was brung up,but I'd no chance at all.
My folks--well,I guess the less said--little pitchers,you know!
I can't see as I was to blame.I was the youngest,an'I knew things was wrong.I fought to go to school,an'pap let me enough that I saw how other people lived.Come night I'd go to the garret,an'bar the trapdoor;but there would be times when Icouldn't help seein'what was goin'on.How'd you like chances such as that for a girl of yourn?""Dreadful!"said mother."Mrs.Freshett,please do be careful!""Sure!"laughed Mrs.Freshett."I was jest goin'to tell you about me an'Josiah.He come to our house one night,a stranger off the road.He said he was sick,an'tired,an'could he have a bed.Mother said,`No,for him to move on.'He tried an'he couldn't.They was somethin'about him--well,you know how them things go!I wa'n't only sixteen,but I felt so sorry for him,all fever burned and mumblin',I helped pap put him to bed,an'
doctored him all I could.Come mornin'he was a sick man.Pap went for the county doctor,an'he took jest one look an'says:
`Small pox!All of ye git!'
"I was bound I wouldn't go,but pap made me,an'the doctor said he'd send a man who'd had it;so I started,but I felt so bad,come a chanct when they got to Groveville,I slipped out an'went back.The man hadn't come,so I set to work the best I knowed.
'Fore long Josiah was a little better an'he asked who I was,an'
where my folks went,an'I told him,an'he asked WHY I came back an'I didn't know what to say,so I jest hung my head an'
couldn't face him.After a while he says,`All right!I guess Igot this sized up.If you'll stay an'nuss me through,I'll be well enough to pull you out,by the time you get it,an'soon as you're able we'll splice,if you say so.'
"`Marry me,you mean?'says I.They wa'n't ever any talk about marryin'at our house.`Sure!'says he.`You're a mighty likely lookin'girl!I'll do fair by ye.'An'he always has,too!But I didn't feel right to let him go it blind,so I jest up and says.`You wouldn't if you knowed my folks!'`You look as decent as I do,'says he;`I'll chance it!'Then I tole him Iwas as good as I was born,an'he believed me,an'he always has,an'I was too!So I nussed him,but I didn't make the job of it he did.You 'member he is pitted considerable.He was so strong I jest couldn't keep him from disfigerin'himself,but he tied me.I begged to be loose,an'he wouldn't listen,so I got a clean face,only three little scars,an'they ain't deep to speak of.He says he looks like a piece of side meat,but say!they ain't nothin'the matter with his looks to me!
"The nuss man never did come,but the county doctor passed things in the winder,till I was over the worst,an'Josiah sent for a preacher an'he married us through the winder--I got the writin's to show,all framed an'proper.Josiah said he'd see I got all they was in it long that line,anyway.When I was well,hanged if he didn't perdooce a wad from his clothes before they burnt 'em,an'he got us new things to wear,an'a horse,an'wagon,an'we driv away here where we thought we could start right,an'
