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MRS . MARCH'S BOARDERS .
Churning- cream down the sullar-stairs, and Afore many days, the widder Westley, she got filled the churn up with two litters of my spring to be dreadful peart for a widder. And when chickens - and the old hens, they liked to have she and Mr. Cliffe didn't know that anybody scratched and picked his eyes out in the scrape . seed ' em, they was jest as sociable together as Their ma said they were children of genius, if they'd known one tother from their cradles. that she feared they was short-lived ; their She got so gay and lively that I sot out to brains was too big for their heads. And then send her off. I was afeard people would begin she'd kiss ' em ; and Dolph, he tied a dead rat to talk if I had a woman in the house that laffed to her water-fall, and skeered her nigh about so loud , especially as she was a widder. into fits. I spoke to Mr. Cliffe about it one day, and he One morning I missed the cat. She warn't growed so red that I didn't know but the widder there to git her new milk, and she was allers had been saying sunthin ' onproper to him. But he sed he guessed if he was me be as constant to the milk-pail as the needle is to the pole. I was worried about her, for she is as wouldn't go to having no fuss, and he was so extry perlite and nice about it, that I told him good a cat as ever you seed. I asked the children if they had seen her, and jest to oblige him I'd keep still. After that he was dreadful retentive to me, Dolph giggled and looked at Angus, and that little wretch said she was in the flour-barrel. and every time he spoke to me he either called "Dolph put her in last night ," said he ; " we me dear madam, or dear Mrs. March. And he got into the habit of patting me onto didn't like her color, she's so black, and we thought we'd powder her jest as ma does her the shoulder, and squeezing my hand whenever face !" . he wanted to say that the butter was too salt, "You little trollop !" cried Mrs. Wilson, grab- or the coffee not sweet enuff. And he kept telling of me how young I looked, bing him and giving him a shake that made his teeth clatter, "I'll learn you to tell falsehoods !" and what pritty hair I had, and what a good "It's so- bain't it, Dolph ?" exclaimed Angus, form, and said that if all ladies were such a and then he scooted out of the house ; and the figure as I was, corsets wouldn't never have next I seed of him he was out in the barn, with been invented. And when he went to the Corner, he allers two hens tied to a pole, trying to brush the me home some peppermint lozenges, of brung cobwebs off from the barn winders. He'd got a feather duster, he said. which I am very fond, and which is excellent As soon as I found out whar the cat was I fer wind in the stummuk. run to the flour- barrel, and shore enuff, when I After a spell I began to see through it, though histed up the kiver, out she bounced as white at fust I couldn't hardly believe it. But, then, as a miller, and skeered nigh about to pieces. I'm very young -looking of my age, and I hain't And when she come out she jumped onto the near so old as I might be. cake-board that had as much as a dozen tumAnd I s'pose I hadn't orter have thought of blers, jest washed, onto it, and down went the marrying agin ; but then a widder's life is a board, and all them tumblers along with it ; very lonesome one, and Mr. Cliffe was such a broke ' em into five hundred pieces, and skeered fine- looking fellow ! I knowed half the girls in the cat so that she didn't come anighst the house Peaville would be yellow with envy ; and as fer for more than a month. the widders and old maids, I doubted if they'd Wall, I had my revenge onto the Wilsons in manage to live through it. One day Mr. Cliffe he sot down terrible nigh one way. The bread they eat was made out of that indenticle flour! me on the settle in the kitchen, and he put his The next day Dolph fell through the scaffling arm round me, and tuk my hand into his as in the barn into the pen, where we had a sow affectionate as ever you seed a person. "Hold on a minnit," says I, ** and let me wipe and some pigs, and the hoggish old lady tore all his clothes off from him afore he could git my hands onto my apron, " I've been a kneedout. Angus got kicked by the old mare half to ing up bread, and they're a little doughy." death ; and Adelaide, she upsot one of the bee" And he waited jest as obedient as a kitten. hives, and was stung so bad that her face looked Then he took my hand agin, and says he, like a biled lobster with the small- pox . " Mrs. March, it is not good for man to be But, land ! ' tain't no use for me to try to begin alone. That is Scripture is it not?" to tell the performances them children had, and "Yes," says I, and it's the truth, too." the scrapes they got into. It would take half. "I'm glad you think so, " says he, "because I'm in love." of my lifetime.
