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 Tamer, and hain't been considered so from Jerusalem to Jonesville."

"Well," sez Tirzah, "you ought to been to church last Sunday, mother, and see then whether you would think Delight did right; I declare I wuz so mortified I wanted to sink right down through the floor." And Tirzah Ann assayed agin to tell the tale.

But as before we hearn the voices of the children almost under the winder, and what of all the world do you think they wuz talkin' about? Why, about marryin', them two little tots lookin' like two clothes-pins, talkin' of matrimony.

Now, marryin' is sunthin' I hate dretfully to hear children talkin' about. But then, come to reason on it, Jack had heard it talked from one week's end to another at home, though I don't spoze he knew what it meant no more than a Hottentot understands snow-shoes. But he heard Tamer argue for hours and hours that Anna should not marry Tom Willis and should marry Von Crank, rehearsin' the reasons why she should marry one and not marry the other. How wuz Jack to know that marriage wuz not a congenial or suitable subject for old or young? Why, she talked that very day more than an hour about it right before the children. It wuz no wonder they had ketched the talk, some like measles when they're round, and I hearn Jack ask Delight who she thought she would marry.

But when she heard the word "marry" Tamer craned her neck out of the winder and told Jack to "Stop instantly!" And he looked up, his blue eyes half shot up, and sez, "Stop what?"

And she sez, "Stop that talk about marryin'!"