Page:Scarlet Sister Mary (1928).pdf/244

 voice sound as kind as she could. "It must a been hard for you to take it, Cousin. Mighty hard. All dis you tell me sho makes me surprise. Doll ain' got de sense I thought e had. Not by a long shot."

But wait; he hadn't told her all yet. Doll got so vexed with him she bawled out loud enough for everybody a mile off to hear, and she the wife of a deacon in Heaven's Gate Church. Then, and he hated to tell this—but Doll cursed him for a stingy old fool.

The words didn't have a chance to get cold off her tongue before he hauled off and slapped her dumb. No woman has a right to call a man such a thing, even if she is married to him. No woman could call him so and not get her face slapped good and hard, free-handed as he was.

But, Lord, the devil was turned loose then. Words ran out of Doll's mouth faster than water runs down the gully after rain. She screamed and hollered and carried on until she was too hoarse to whisper. Nobody could stop her or do a thing with her. The more she talked, the more she said.

When she ran into the shed room he paid no heed to her until he heard a strange fuss. He got there just in time to see Doll grab up every bit of the rations and throw them out of the win-