om, mad as a wet hen, and by and by I heard that book
go rattlin' out of the window and plunk down in the radish bed. So next
morning I went out and got it, 'cause I liked Doc purty well by then,
and it made me sorry to see sich a nice, quiet man carry on so.

"I couldn't make head nor tail of the book, nor see why it riled Doc
up so. It was jist another Shakespeare book, only this one said that it
wasn't Shakespeare, but some one else, that wrote the Shakespeare books.
I thought Doc was real foolish to git so mad about it, but I had no idea
how much Doc had took it to heart.

"Well, I do run on terribul when I git started, don't I? An' them supper
dishes waitin' to be washed! But I guess it won't hurt them to stand a
bit. You see, when Doc begun to take a likin' for me, the poor feller
started in to talk about what he believed in. Most fellers does. First
he begun about greenbacks. He was the only Greenbacker in Kilo; but that
was jist politercal stuff, and while I'm a good Republican, like pa was,
I didn't see that it would hurt if my husband did think other than what
I did on that, so long as he wasn't a saloon Democrat. That was when
they was havin' the prohibition fight in Ioway, you know. But when Doc
begun lettin' out hints that he didn't think much of goin' to church, I
was real sorry.

"I was sorry because I couldn't see my way clear to marry an outsider,
bein' a good Methodist myself; but I didn't dream but that he was jist
one of these lazy Christians that don't attend church lest they're
dragged. There is plenty sich. I thought mebby I could bring him round
all right once he was married; so I jist asked him right out if he would
jine church.

"Well, you'd have thought I'd asked him to take poison! He didn't flare
up like some would, but jist sat down and explained how he couldn't. I
guess he must have explained, off an' on, for three weeks before I got
a good hang of his idea. Seems like he was believing some Hindoo stuff
jist then. I don't know as you ever heart tell of it. It's about souls.
When a person dies his soul goes into another person, and so on, until
kingdom come. R'inca'nation's what they call it."

"Yes," said Eliph' Hewlitt, "it is all given in 'India, Its Religions
and Its History,' in Jarby's Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Compendium of
Literature, Science and Art."

"Jist so!" said Mrs. Weaver. "Well, I guess by the time Doc got done
explainin' I knew more about r'inca'nation than what