r 'prope'ty.' By the
way, did you happen to notice whuther the slat top to that cistern o'
hers was over the manhole? Out in the open shed, or lean-to? 'Cause
she's a great notion of leavin' it off to 'air'--as if a cistern that
hasn't had no water in it for fifteen twenty years wasn't dry as a
pipe-stem a'ready or needed 'airin''! Gen'ally, after she's been out
there I take a look 'round myself. I wouldn't admire to have anything,
even a tramp, fall down that cistern, though it might not hurt 'em much,
'cause it's shallower 'n it's broad. A real good 'system,' I 'low, even
if that everlastin' Sprigg did build it. But what's the inside o'
Susanna 't you saw an' liked?"

"She showed me her baby's things, an' looked as sad as if it had died
only yesterday. But she showed me, too, her shroud--her _shroud_! Just
think of it, Uncle Moses! And that was horrible."

"Pooh! That's nothin'. Lots of women has 'em laid by. Same's some
fool-men has a coffin built an' kep' handy. As for me, I'm goin' to
worry 'bout things only up till the day o' my death, an' not a minute
beyond. But, I was tellin' of Verplanck Sturtevant, an' must finish the
job. Squire, he had always given the cold shoulder to Jim, an' despised
him out an' out. Jim was crafty an' underhand, Squire was open an' above
board--an' them two kinds don't mix. Still, Jim had been able to get his
claw on the Squire's meat, so to speak; that is, he'd made money
himself, lawin' an' grindin' the face of them worse off 'an he was, an'
the Squire needin' ready cash, to make some improvements he'd better ha'
let alone, Jim advanced it an' Squire give a mortgage. That was the
beginnin', an' now, they say, Pettijohn owns about every acre of the old
Sturtevant property, an' could turn the Madam out any day. Yet, somehow,
he dassent. Indeed, I'd like to see the man could walk straight up to
that old lady an' say: 'Your house is mine. Please to get out.' Out
she'd go at the first word; head up, back straight as one her own hall
chairs, but a look in her eye that that man wouldn't forget in his
lifetime. Verplanck, he was of the same sort--prouder'n Lucifer; an'
even if she'd knowed where to send for him his mother would ha'
understood 'twouldn't done a mite o' good. But she didn't send. She
obeyed her husband to the last say-so. An' he didn't live long after
that, anyway. Elizabeth, she come back, bringin' Monty with her; but
her own folks tell as how there was never a thing said bet