her, and has let down his watch, so to speak?

But she loved him. And when I warned her with tears in my eyes, warned her
that mebby it wus more than her own safety and happiness that wus
imperilled, I could see by the look in her eyes, though she didn't say
much, that it wusn't no use for me to talk; for she wus one of the
constant natures that can't wobble round. And though I don't like
wobblin', still I do honestly believe that the wobblers are happier than
them that can't wobble.

I could see jest how it wuz, and I couldn't bear to have her blamed. And I
would tell folks,--some of the relations on her mother's side,--when they
would say, "What a fool she wus to have him!"--I'd say to 'em, "Wall, when
a woman sees the man she loves goin' down to ruination, and tries to
unlove him, she'll find out jest how much harder it is to unlove him than
to love him in the first place: they'll find out it is a tough job to
tackle."

[Illustration: SAMANTHA AND THE "BLAMERS."]

I said this to blamers of Cicely (relatives, the best blamers you can find
anywhere). But, at the same time, it would have been my way, when he had
come a courtin' me so far gone with liquor that he could hardly stand up--
why, I should have told him plain, that I wouldn't try to set myself up as
a rival to alcohol, and he might pay to that his attentions exclusively
hereafter.

But she didn't. And he promised sacred to abstain, and could, and did, for
most a year; and she married him.