Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/297

Rh another wife. I'm 'fraid he couldn't git nobody wuth her salt ter marry him now."

"Oh, dear Aunt Pearly Gates, please don't talk that way! Uncle Si adores you and all of us adore you. Even the aunts love you, and if you should leave us there would be nothing but sadness at Mill House. Philip and Betsy and Jo love you, too."

"Well, sometimes I gits moughty low in my min'. When my folks is havin' so much trouble an' sorrow it seems lak I worry so over them an' what with settin' an' all I reckon I ain't had a wink er sleep fer nigh on ter a week.

"I ain't quite clar in my min' 'bout what ol' Rolfe Bollin' is claimin', but I is sho' er one thing, an' that is if they is a law in the lan' what will take Marse Robert's hub fact'ry away from him, hide an' har, an' han' it over ter Rolfe Bollin', who ain't never done a hones' ter Gawd day's wuck in his life, why, then they's something the matter with the law an' I ain't near so ap' ter feel lak 'bidin' by it. I reckon I'd have a hard time a breakin' the law a layin' up here in the baid, but I'd feel lak a tryin' ter do it."

Rebecca laughed. The picture of gentle old Aunt Pearly Gates breaking the law was funny.

"Well, break the law, but don't break your eggs. Maybe I'd better not tell you any more