a-settin' there. I hope you ain't talked yoreself entirely out with Fred. It does beat all how you an' that boy seem to grow thicker an' thicker every day. One 'ud think fur all the world that you told him all yore secrets, an' was afeared he'd tell 'em, by the way you stick by him; an' he's jest as bad about you. It's amazin'."
"Freddie's a wonderful good boy, an' he's smart, too. They ain't none of 'em a-goin' to throw dust in his eyes in the race of life."
"I'm shore I've tried to do my dooty by him the very best I could, an' ef he does amount to anything in this world it'll be through hard labour an' mighty careful watchin'." Miss Hester gave a sigh that was meant to be full of solemnity, but that positively reeked with self-satisfaction.
"But as you say, 'Liphalet," she went on, "Fred ain't the worst boy in the world, nor the dumbest neither, ef I do say it myself. I ain't a-sayin', mind you, that he's anything so great or wonderful; but I've got to thinkin' that there's somethin' in him besides original sin, an' I should feel that the Lord had been mighty favourin' to me ef I could manage to draw it out. The
