when there
was no pistol. Then she said that's one part of the town; and the other
part was narrow as a knife blade, that they were talkin' of churchin'
Mr. Miller and drivin' him out of the pulpit and for nothin' except
sayin' that God was in everything, and that there wasn't room enough in
the world for anything but God. Sometimes Mr. Miller when he was
preachin', got to dreamin' and would wander way off. He had done this
when talkin' about God and give hisself away--that's what they said. And
what was he goin' to do with so many children and nothin' saved because
he never made nothin', and nothin' to do if he couldn't preach? Grandpa
said, "Well, where does that doctrine put old Satan?" And ma says, "Of
course it puts him out of the world, which I don't believe; there's too
much sin in the world to believe that; but anyway a man has a right to
his opinions without bein' persecuted for 'em."

All the time Myrtle was leanin' against ma, just like a cat, actin', I
thought. She did make me terrible mad sometimes. Grandpa couldn't see
through her. He petted her and went out and saddled a horse and put her
on it and led the horse around the lot for 'bout an hour, right in the
sun. And then she came in and began to honey around grandma and get
things. I saw the game was spoiled for me, and wanted the time to go by
so I could get away, or for somethin' to happen. Then about eleven
o'clock grandma came into the settin' room with apples to peel, and ma
helped her and they began to talk--and it was wonderful to listen, for
it was about Mitch and Zueline. Ma said she'd never seed such children,
such a boy as Mitch, that he would be a musician or a poet like
Longfellow when he grew up; that he was dreamin' all the time and
believed in fairy stories, and made everything real to hisself. Then she
said that Mitch thought so much of Zueline that it was enough to scare a
body; that if anything happened to her Mitch would go out of his head,
and if they was separated it would kill him, and she thought they would
be separated. That Mrs. Hasson thought of takin' a trip, and takin'
Zueline, but was keepin' it quiet. Grandma said it was silly for two
children to act that a way, or at least for Mitch to act that a way.
Zueline warn't doin' anything except just to be Zueline to Mitch--she
wasn't as much in love with Mitch as he was with her.

Then grandpa came in and said we'd all go to Bobtown the next day, that
his spring wagon was done a