stomach--if you
need it it'll cure you, an' if you don't it won't hurt you. This
thing of old folks fallin' in love ain't nothin' but a disorder of
the stomach anyhow."
Aunt Sally again protested a poor widow was often pushed to the wall
and had to take advantage of circumstances, but Uncle Davy told the
Bishop to read on.
At this point Tilly got up and left the room.
"_'Fourth. I give and bequeath to my devoted daughter, Tilly, and her
husband, Charles C. Biggers, all my personal property, including the
crib up in the loft, the razor my grandfather left me, the old mare
and her colt, the best bed in the parlor, and--'_"
The Bishop stopped and looked serious.
"Davy, ain't you a trifle previous in this?" he asked.
"Not for a will," he said. "You see this is supposed to happen and be
read after you're dead. You see Charles has been to see her twice and
writ a poem on her eyes."
The Bishop frowned: "You'll have to watch that Biggers boy--he is a
wild reckless rake an' not in Tilly's class in anything."
"He's pow'ful sweet on Tilly," said Aunt Sallie.
"Has he asked her to marry him?" asked the Bishop astonished.
"S-h-h--not yet," said Uncle Davy, "but he's comin' to it as fast as
a lean hound to a meat block. He's got the firs' tech now--silly an'
poetic. After a while he'll get silly an' desperate, an' jes' 'fo' he
kills hisse'l Tilly'll fix him all right an' tie him up for life. The
good Lord makes every man crazy when he is ripe for matrimony, so he
can mate him off befo' he comes to."
The Bishop shook his head: "I am glad I came out here to-day--if for
nothin' else to warn you to let that Biggers boy alone. He don't
study nothin' but fast horses an' devilment."
"I never seed a man have a wuss'r case," said Aunt Sally. "Won't
Tilly be proud of herse'f as the daughter of Old Judge Biggers? An'
me--jes' think of me as the grandmother of Biggerses--the riches' an'
fines' family in the land."
"An' me?--I'll be the gran'pap of 'em--won't I, Sally?"
"You forgit, Davy," said Aunt Sally--"this is yo' will--you'll be
dead."
"I did forgit," said Uncle Davy sadly--"but I'd sho' love to live an'
take one of them little Biggerses on my knees an' think his gran'pap
had bred up to this. Me an' old Judge Biggers--gran'paws of the same
kids! Now, you see, Hillard, he met Tilly at a party an' he tuck her
in to supper. The next day he writ her a poem, an' I think it's a
pretty good start on the gran'pap b
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