oss roads. I want to do what's right by my
children here or there," panted Mrs. Freshett, "and these men seemed to
think the contrivance they was sellin' perfectly grand, an' like to be
an aid to the soul's salvation. Nice as it seemed, an' convincin' as
they talked, I couldn't get the consent of my mind to order, until I
knowed if you was goin' to kiver your dead with the contraption. None
of the rest of the neighbours seem over friendly to me, an' I've told
Josiah many's the time, that I didn't care a rap if they wa'n't, so
long as I had you. Says I, 'Josiah, to my way of thinkin', she is top
crust in this neighbourhood, and I'm on the safe side apin' her ways
clost as possible.'"

"I'll gladly help you all I can," said my mother.

"Thanky!" said Mrs. Freshett. "I knowed you would. Josiah he says to
me, 'Don't you be apin' nobody.' 'Josiah,' says I, 'it takes a pretty
smart woman in this world to realize what she doesn't know. Now I know
what I know, well enough, but all I know is like to keep me an' my
children in a log cabin an' on log cabin ways to the end of our time.
You ain't even got the remains of the cabin you started in for a cow
shed.' Says I, 'Josiah, Miss Stanton knows how to get out of a cabin
an' into a grand big palace, fit fur a queen woman. She's a ridin' in
a shinin' kerridge, 'stid of a spring wagon. She goes abroad dressed
so's you men all stand starin' like cabbage heads. All hern go to
church, an' Sunday-school, an' college, an' come out on the top of the
heap. She does jest what I'd like to if I knowed how. An' she ain't
come-uppety one morsel.' If I was to strike acrost fields to them
stuck-up Pryors, I'd get the door slammed in my face if 'twas the
missus, a sneer if 'twas the man, an' at best a nod cold as an iceberg
if 'twas the girl. Them as want to call her kind 'Princess,' and
encourage her in being more stuck up 'an she was born to be, can, but
to my mind a Princess is a person who thinks of some one besides
herself once in a while."

"I don't find the Pryors easy to become acquainted with," said mother.
"I have never met the woman; I know the man very slightly; he has been
here on business once or twice, but the girl seems as if she would be
nice, if one knew her."

"Well, I wouldn't have s'posed she was your kind," said Mrs. Freshett.
"If she is, I won't open my head against her any more. Anyway, it was
the grave-kivers I come about."

"Just what is it, Mrs. Fre