like an old
block of wood, an' her--She thinks she's arrested somebody, Susanna
does! She thinks she's made herself into a constable, does she? Turned
her house into a jail--an' forgot to fasten the winders outside! Ho! Ho!
Silly women!"

The disappointed old fellow got as much enjoyment as he could out of the
situation, and was more than delighted by thought of a tramp's shoes
smirching the log-cabin quilt. It served the widow right, he maintained,
because she had wasted so much labor on the thing. "Bought good new
Merrimac print, she did, an' then set there o' nights a
snip-snip-snippin' it up into little scraps an' sewin' 'em together
again. If a woman'll do that, it's proof what sort o' brains she's got."
Then, with sudden energy, he advised: "Don't you never let her set you a
sewin' patchwork, Kitty Keehoty. It's all on a piece with knittin'
mittens for the Hottentots--a waste of time. A waste o' sinful time, I
mean a sinful waste of--Oh, hum!"

She waited till he had cooled off from his own vexation, and then asked:

"Uncle Moses, will you tell me all about Montgomery's father?"

If she had surprised him before she startled him now. Flashing his keen
old eyes upon her, he asked in return:

"Why do you want to know? Who egged you on to say that?"

"Nobody. Why, surely, nobody at all. But it seems so queer that none
talk of him, yet of his mother speak so often and so lovingly. Aunt
Eunice says she was a Marsden lady, a farmer's daughter, and 'as lovely
as a flower.' Even Madam, who didn't like her at first, grew to be fond
of her and to call her 'my sweet daughter.' But when I asked Monty of
his father, and had told him all about mine, about everything, about the
second Mrs. John, the Snowballs, and all--he just said: 'I guess I'll go
hunt old Whitey,' and off he went, without saying 'excuse me.' His face
was as red as red, and there came a queer look in his eyes as if--as if
he was ashamed. Was his father a wicked man, Uncle Moses?"

Quite diverted by this time from his own vexations, the hired man lay
silently thinking for a moment. Then he said:

"Well, little Kitty Keehoty, I hain't seen that your warm heart gets any
colder toward folks when they get into trouble 'an when they don't. That
tramp, now, that stole your victuals--Oh, I know! I did know last night,
though you didn't know that I knowed--"

"'I saw Esau kissing Kate, Esau saw that I saw,'" quoted this other
Kate, in laughing interruption.