mad. She said she didn't cal'late to pay a girl three shillin's
a week for growin'. Mis' Pennell's be'n feelin' consid'able slim, or she
wouldn't 'a' hired help; it's just like pullin' teeth for Deacon Pennell
to pay out money for anything like that. He watches every mouthful the
girl puts into her mouth, 'n' it's made him 'bout down sick to see her
fleshin' up on his vittles.... They say he has her put the mornin'
coffee-groun's to dry on the winder-sill, 'n' then has 'em scalt over
for dinner; but, there! I don' know 's there's a mite o' truth in it,
so I won't repeat it. They went to him to git a subscription for the new
hearse the other day. Land sakes! we need one bad enough. I thought for
sure, at the last funeral we had, that they'd never git Mis' Strout to
the graveyard safe and sound. I kep' a-thinkin' all the way how she'd
'a' took on, if she'd be'n alive. She was the most timersome woman 't
ever was. She was a Thomson, 'n' all the Thomsons was scairt at their
own shadders. Ivory Strout rid right behind the hearse, 'n' he says his
heart was in his mouth the hull durin' time for fear 't would break
down. He didn't git much comfort out the occasion, I guess! Wa' n't he
mad he hed to ride in the same buggy with his mother-in-law! The
minister planned it all out, 'n' wrote down the order o' the mourners,
'n' passeled him out with old Mis' Thomson. I was stan'in' close by, 'n'
I heard him say he s'posed he could go that way if he must, but 't would
spile the hull blamed thing for him! ... Well, as I was sayin', the
seleckmen went to Deacon Pennell to get a contribution towards buyin'
the new hearse; an' do you know, he wouldn't give 'em a dollar? He told
'em he gave five dollars towards the other one, twenty years ago, 'n'
hadn't never got a cent's worth o' use out of it. That's Deacon Pennell
all over! As Si says, if the grace o' God wa'n't given to all of us
without money 'n' without price, you wouldn't never hev ketched Deacon
Pennell experiencin' religion! It's got to be a free gospel 't would
convict him o' sin, that's certain! ... They say Seth Thatcher's married
out in Iowy. His mother's tickled 'most to death. She heerd he was
settin' up with a girl out there, 'n' she was scairt to death for fear
he'd get served as Lemuel 'n' Cyrus was. The Thatcher boys never hed any
luck gettin' married, 'n' they always took disappointments in love
turrible hard. You know Cyrus set in that front winder o' Mis'
Thatcher's,