at's Elijah tryin' to get at
anyhow. She says she always thought a barbecue was a kind of cake an'
she did n't know white folks ever could lift their legs that high, even
if they felt to want to. She says the idea of its bein' suthin' to eat
in the woods is surely most new to her an' she ain't sure she wants to
eat in the woods anyhow. She says there's always flies an' mosquitoes in
the woods an' she's passed the age o' likin' to drop down anywhere, an'
jump up any time, years ago. As for cookin' in the woods she says that
part of Elijah's editorial is too much for every one. She says she never
hear of roastin' a ox whole in a pit in her life; she says how is the ox
to be got into the pit an' what's to cook him while he's in there an'
when he's cooked how's he to be got out again to eat? She says she
thinks Elijah has got a ox an' a clam mixed in his mind, an' a pit an' a
pile. She says she knows they cook clams in piles on the seashore,
'cause she's heard so from people as has been there, an' besides she
seen a picture of one once.

"Gran'ma Mullins came up an' she's most awful troubled over the ox, too.
She says Hiram is got such a name for bein' strong now that she just
knows as they'll expect him to put that ox into the pit when they're
ready to cook him, an' then lift him out again when he's done. She says
it's gettin' too terrible about Hiram, every time as somebody fat dies
anywhere or there's a piano to move or a barn to get up on jack-screws
they send right for Hiram to be one o' the pallbearers an' give him the
heaviest corner. Why, she says the other day when that refrigerator came
for Polly White they unloaded it right onto Hiram from the train, an'
not a soul dreamed as there was shot packed in both sides of it to save
rates, until poor Hiram set it down to put it on the other shoulder.
She says too, as she can't well see how a ox can be roasted whole
anyway; she says it'll be a awful job gettin' his hair singed off in the
first place, an' she just knows they'll expect Hiram to hold him an'
twirl him while he's singein'. Then, too, she says as the whole of a ox
don't want to be roasted anyhow. The tongue has to be boiled an' the
liver has to be sliced an' the calves' brains has to be breaded an'
dipped in egg, an' after he's roasted an' Hiram has got him out o' the
pit, who's to skin him then, she'd like to know, for you can't tell her
as anybody can eat rawhide, even if it is cooked.

"Deacon White come u