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I don’t see why you can’t let Nettie alone!

She ’s always picking on me, Aunt Ella! To hear her talk anybody would think I was terrible.

I know more about what ’s going on than some folks think I do.

Then you know a lot. I heard Horace Bevins say a week ago that he did n’t know as it was any use tryin’ to have a Masonic Lodge in the same town as you.

They never was a Bevins yet did n’t have his tongue hung from the middle; the day his mother was married she answered both the responses.

Mum! Mum! Shall I take my coat off; are we going to stay, Mum?

No, we ain’t going to stay. I just want to see Cousin Jane for a minute.

She ’s in the kitchen with Hannah.

Watchin’ her, I bet! I wonder Hannah puts up with it.

If you was to live with Jane for a spell, I guess you ’d find you had a plenty to put up with.

It ’s enough to make the Jordans turn in their graves, all of ’em at once.