"Mebbe I spoke too sharp," said Jabe apologetically;
"but we 've ben scared to talk wives, or even women folks,
fer a month o' Sundays, fer fear Dixie 'd up 'n' tumble on his scythe,
or do somethin' crazy. You see it's this way (I'd ruther
talk than work; 'n' we ain't workin' by time to-day, anyway,
on account of the circus comin'): 'Bout a year 'n' a half ago,
this tall, han'some feller turned up here in Pleasant River.
He inhailed from down South somewheres, but he didn't
like his work there, 'n' drifted to New York, 'n' then
to Boston; 'n' then he remembered his mother was a State o'
Maine woman, 'n' he come here to see how he liked.
We didn't take no stock in him at first,--we never hed one o'
that nigger-tradin' secedin' lot in amongst us,--but he was
pleasant spoken 'n' a square, all-round feller, 'n' didn't
git off any secesh nonsense, 'n' it ended in our likin'
him first-rate. Wall, he got work in the cannin' fact'ry over on
the Butterfield road, 'n' then he fell in with the Maddoxes.
You 've hearn tell of 'em; they're relation to Pitt here."


"I wouldn't own 'em if I met 'em on Judgement Bench!"
exclaimed Pitt Packard hotly. "My stepfather's second wife married Mis'
Maddox's first husband after he got divorced from her, 'n' that's
all there is to it; they ain't no bloody-kin o' mine, 'n' I don't
call 'em relation."

"Wall, Pitt's relations or not, they're all wuss 'n the Old Driver,
as yer said 'bout Dan Robinson's wife. Dixie went to board there.
Mis Maddox was all out o' husbands jest then,--she 'd jest
disposed of her fourth, somehow or 'nother; she always hed