n't
mind the rain here; they are used to it. It's like the musk plant, arter
you put it to your nose once, you can't smell it a second time. Oh what
beautiful galls they be! What a shame it is to bar a feller out such a
day as this. One on 'em blushes like a red cabbage, when she speaks to
me, that's the one, I reckon, I disturbed this mornin'. Cuss the rooks!
I'll pyson them, and that won't make no noise.

"She shows me the consarvitery. 'Take care, Sir, your coat has caught
this geranium,' and she onhitches it. 'Stop, Sir, you'll break this
jilly flower,' and she lifts off the coat tail agin; in fact, it's so
crowded, you can't squeeze along, scarcely, without a doin' of mischief
somewhere or another.

"Next time, she goes first, and then it's my turn, 'Stop, Miss,' sais
I, 'your frock has this rose tree over,' and I loosens it; once
more, 'Miss, this rose has got tangled,' and I ontangles it from her
furbeloes.

"I wonder what makes my hand shake so, and my heart it bumps so, it has
bust a button off. If I stay in this consarvitery, I shan't consarve
myself long, that's a fact, for this gall has put her whole team on, and
is a runnin' me off the road. 'Hullo! what's that? Bell for dressin'
for dinner.' Thank Heavens! I shall escape from myself, and from this
beautiful critter, too, for I'm gettin' spoony, and shall talk silly
presently.

"I don't like to be left alone with a gall, it's plaguy apt to set me a
soft sawderin' and a courtin'. There's a sort of nateral attraction like
in this world. Two ships in a calm, are sure to get up alongside of each
other, if there is no wind, and they have nothin' to do, but look at
each other; natur' does it. "Well, even, the tongs and the shovel, won't
stand alone long; they're sure to get on the same side of the fire,
and be sociable; one on 'em has a loadstone and draws 'tother, that's
sartain. If that's the case with hard-hearted things, like oak and
iron, what is it with tender hearted things like humans? Shut me up in
a 'sarvatory with a hansum gall of a rainy day, and see if I don't think
she is the sweetest flower in it. Yes, I am glad it is the dinner-bell,
for I ain't ready to marry yet, and when I am, I guess I must get a gall
where I got my hoss, in Old Connecticut, and that state takes the shine
off of all creation for geese, galls and onions, that's a fact.

"Well dinner won't wait, so I ups agin once more near the rooks, to
brush up a bit; but there it is agi