Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/105

Rh from Elizabeth, who went quietly on with her cooking.

"When you say he comin'?"

"I didn't say. I don't know."

"You been a stirrin' furnisher 'roun' mighty brisk upstars lately. I 'low you's fixin' up young marster's room," putting an unmistakable sneering emphasis on "young marster."

"Yes, I have been arranging Mr. Philip's room, thinking he might arrive in the next few days." "Mr. Phup! Yi, Yi, Yi!" she cackled. "Is you a thinkin' I's a gonter call Phup, mister? I ain't called his pap befo' him mister, an' I ain't a gonter call him mister. You can't say he's any better'n his pappy, kin you?"

Elizabeth was silent as to what she might say concerning her son's superiority to his father. "I say, kin you?" repeated the old woman, venomously. She took extreme delight in trying to make Elizabeth criticize her husband. A soft padding noise in the passage warned her her master was approaching and she raised her voice to a querulous whine.

"You's afeerd ter say. Yo' keepin' so dumb is a sho' sign you thinks Phup is better'n what his pap is. Ain't nobody gonter say a word against my baby 'thout gittin' me riled."