come onct a year an' he cu'dn't pass over
blackberry winter to save his life. Mind you he never sed anything to
me about it, but one day he ups an' gits choked on a chicken gizzerd
an' coughs an' wheezes an' goes on so like a fool that I ups with the
cheer an' comes down on his head a-thinkin' I'd make him cough it up.
I mout a bin a little riled an' hit harder'n I orter, but I didn't
mean anything by it, an' he did cough it up on my clean floor, an'
I'm willin' to say agin' I was a little hasty, that's true, in
callin' him a lop-sided son of a pigeon-toed monkey, for Bud riled me
mighty. But what you reckin he done?"

She shook her finger in his face again. Bud tried to run again.

"You kno' you done it, Bud Billins--I followed you an' listened when
you tuck up the cat an' you whispered in the cat's year that your
spliced an' wedded wife was a--a--_she devil_!"

"It tuck two plates that time, Mister Kingsley--that's the time Bud
didn't draw no pay fur two weeks.

"Wal, that was over a year ago, an' Bud he's been a behavin' mighty
well, untwell this mornin'. It's true he didn't say much, but he sed
'nuff fur me to see ther spell was acomin' on an' I'd better bust it
up befo' it got into his blood an' sot 'im to cultivate the company
of the cat. I seed I had to check the disease afore it got too
strong, fur I seed Bud was tryin' honestly to taper off with them
spells an' shake with the cat if he cu'd, so when he kinder snorted a
little this mornin' because he didn't have but one aig an' then
kinder began to look aroun' as if he was thinkin' of mice, I busted a
saucer over his head an' fotched 'im too, grateful la'k an' happy, to
be hisse'f agin. I think he's nearly c'wored an' I'm mighty glad you
is, Bud Billins, fur it's costin' a lot of mighty good crockery to
c'wore you.

"Now you all jes' lem'me 'lone, Mister Kingsley--lem'me manage Bud.
He's slo' mouthed as I'm tellin' you, but he's gittin' over them
spells an' I'm gwinter c'wore him if I hafter go into the queensware
bus'ness on my own hook. Now, Bud Billins, you jes' go in there now
an' go to tendin' to that slubbin' machine, an' don't you so much as
look at a cat twixt now an' next Christmas."

Bud needed no further admonition. He bolted for the door and was soon
silently at work.

CHAPTER XVIII

SAMANTHA CAREWE

But Jud Carpenter did not finish his work by starting the slubbing
machine. Samantha Carewe, one of the main loom women, was absent