Page:Orange Grove.djvu/263

 "Oh dear! don't give any more of your shocking descriptions."

"Why that was sensible, and Sykes was one that never would let his taste outrun his good sense. She might have damped her feet and took cold, women are so kind o' tender you know, excep' when they have a shiftless husband to take care of. Next come the ceremony which was very imposing. It was altogether the most magnificent affair you ever witnessed.

"When the Squire that was to marry 'em asked him if he would promise to love and take good care of her and so on, just as if his sayin' so would make any difference, he pulled back her calabash and gin her such a smack you could 'a heard it half a mile, and says he, 'That's what I reckon I will.

"What did she say? did she promise to obey?"

"Oh she was all kind 'o took aback, and then was the time she used the smellin' bottle. Well, the Squire waited until she recovered her senses agin, so she would fully understand what he was sayin' to her, and then proceeded in a solemn voice to tell her how she must honor and obey him in all things whether sick or well, drunk or sober, and then the poor thing went clean off. Howbeit, with the use of the smellin' bottle she come to agin, and the Squire he was very considerate, he didn't exact any promise of her and it was just as well as if he had, 'cause it's no matter how much a woman promises she always means to have her own way if she can get it."

"That's the end of the chapter is it, about long enough I think."