smacked his lips over it an' said it was the
most delicious custard he had ever e't in his life, an' then, when he
had done finished his first saucer an' said, "No, thank you, I won't
choose any more," to a second helpin', why, she tasted it an' thess bust
out a-cryin'.

But I reckon that was partly because she was sort o' on edge yet from
the excitement of new housekeepin' and the head o' the table.

Well, I felt mighty sorry to see her in tears, an' what does Sonny do
but insist on eatin' the whole dish o' custard, an' soon ez I could git
a chance, I took him aside an' give him a little dose-t o' pain-killer,
an' I took a few drops myself.

I had felt obligated to swaller a few spoonfuls o' the salted custard
when she'd be lookin' my way, an' I felt like ez ef I was pizened, an'
so I thess took the painkiller ez a sort o' anecdote.

Another way Mary Elizabeth shows sense is the way she accepts
discipline from the ol' nigger, Dicey.

She's mighty old an' strenuous now, Dicey is, an' she thinks because she
was present at Sonny's birth an' before it, thet she's privileged to
correct him for anything he does, and we've always indulged her in it,
an' thess ez soon as she knowed what was brewin' 'twix' him an' Mary
Elizabeth, why, she took her into the same custody, an' it's too cute
for anything the way the little girl takes a scoldin' from her--thess
winkin' at Sonny an' me while she receives it.

An' the ol' nigger'd lay down her life for her most ez quick ez she
would for Sonny.

She was the first to open our eyes to the state of affairs 'twixt the
two child'en, that ol' nigger was. It was the first year Sonny went
North. He had writ home to his ma from New York State, and said thet Mr.
Burroughs had looked over his little writings an' said they was good
enough to be printed an' bound up in a book.

Wife, she read the letter out loud, ez she always done, an' we noticed
thet when we come to that, Mary Elizabeth slipped out o' the room; but
we didn't think nothin' of it tell direc'ly ol' Dicey, she come in
tickled all but to death to tell us thet the little girl was out on the
po'ch with her face hid in the honeysuckle vines, cryin' thess ez hard
as we was. So then, of co'se, we knowed that ef the co'se of true love
could be allowed to run smooth for once-t, she was fo'-ordained to be
our little blessin'--an' his--that is, so far as she was concerned.

Of co'se we was even a little tenderer todes her, after that