Page:Samantha on Children's Rights.djvu/127

 in the country, he is a descendant of the Poltroons who settled on the Hudson in Colonial days."

"Is that so, Tamer?" sez I. "And is a Poltroon any better for bein' a old one than a young one?"

And she sez, "I didn't say Poltroon." And she went on to explain, but it wuz sunthin' that sounded jest like it. Well, he stayed till after dinner, and then he went off, much to Anna's relief, I could see plain. But Tamer acted real disappointed, and urged him warm to come agin soon, which he promised to do ready enough. He wuz comin' back the next week, I believe; he had found some new old graves somewhere that he wanted to identify and claim, if possible. It beats all how fond he wuz of cemeteries. But, then, he had a good deal the look of a tall slim monument himself.

He bid us all good-by in a real polite way, but agin, when I tried to speak his name in farewell, I struggled round and fell helpless amongst the ruins of them syllables.

Why, it beats all the time I had with 'em, and to eppisode forward a little. A few weeks afterwards, when the Poltroon wuz there on another visit, they wuz to our house to tea. He wanted to look in the Jonesville cemetery, so they stopped to our house on their way back. And Thomas J. and his folks, and Tom Willis and Elder Minkley all happened to be spendin' the afternoon there, and I shall never forgit the names I called that Poltroon trying to introduce him. Why, I called him by more than forty different names, I'll bet; I strugglin' and wrestlin' as you may say among the Vons and Crinkles and etcetery, tryin' hard to do my very best by him and the other visitors and myself.

And that decided me; I toilin' and prespirin' and