nds
on her two hips, an' let out right then 'n' there, 'Mr. Timmans,' she
says, 'you was so sure 't there was a rat drowned in the cistern,' she
says, 'that nothin' mus' do but you mus' clean it out,' she says; ''n'
there wa'n't no rat,' she says, ''n' it ain't rained since,' she says,
''n' how're we to wash?' she says,--'n' then she waited to see what he
would say, 'n' she said a lamb would o' begun to hop about 'n' yowl with
mad to see how kind of calm 'n' dazed like 'n' altogether peaceful 'n'
happy he looked up at her. 'N' he says, quite placid 'n' contented,
'Can't you get some water out o' the pond?' he says. 'Out o' the pond!'
says Hannah, high-keyed like,--Gran'ma Mullins says Hannah always went
high-keyed easy,--'out o' that muddy, swampy, slimy, marshy, cow-churned
pond,' says Hannah, 'out o' that nasty, dirty, filthy, green pond,' says
Hannah, gettin' high-keyeder 'n' high-keyeder. 'I can get it clean for
you,' says Rufus, a-openin' the Dead Sea 'n' runnin' his eyes aroun' for
his place,--'jus' say when you want it,' he says. Well, Gran'ma Mullins
said Hannah always said as she never knowed what kept her off him at
that minute, for she was that mad she felt like the righteous judgment
o' the Lord was in the ends of her very finger-nails. '_Now_,' she says,
'right _now_,' she says; 'that's when I want it,' she says. Rufus looked
up 'n' see she was in earnest, 'n' she says the way he sighed like he
was a martyr as led the band was enough to have ended her patience once
'n' for all time if it had n't been for the wash, 'n' then he carefully
turned a leaf down in the Dead Sea 'n' got out o' the rocker 'n' went
'n' got Nathan Lumb 'n' they went off together.

"Well, Gran'ma Mullins said Hannah begun to wait, 'n' Hannah waited
until if Hannah had waited any longer she 'd have gone off like a
rocket, she was that mad again. Gran'ma Mullins said Hannah always got
so red she got purple if she only was rememberin' it after. 'N' in the
end she could n't stand it no longer 'n' she set off for the pond
herself. She always said as she just hoped 'n' prayed as they was both
on 'em drowned all the way there, but the Lord in his mercy was n't
seein' fit to deal out no such luck, 'n' she found the pond there an'
Rufus 'n' Nathan gone.

"'N' what do you suppose she see, Mrs. Lathrop; what _do_ you suppose
she see? You never heard the like, 'n' the whole wagon of us could n't
but feel as it was maybe just as well as we was on o