bad to live on the face o' the earth, and that fayry old lady
that kep' the punkin' coach up her sleeve--well, anyhow, you jest
believe that punkin' coach, rats, mice, and all, when you're
hearin' bout it, fore ever you stop to think it ain't so.

"I don' know how tis, but the folks in that Cinderella story seem
to match together somehow; they're all pow'ful onlikely--the
prince feller with the glass slipper, and the hull bunch; but
jest the same you kind o' gulp em all down in a lump. But land,
Rebecky, nobody'd swaller that there village maiden o' your'n,
and as for what's-his-name Littlefield, that come out o' them
bushes, such a feller never 'd a' be'n IN bushes! No, Rebecky,
you're the smartest little critter there is in this township, and
you beat your Uncle Jerry all holler when it comes to usin' a
lead pencil, but I say that ain't no true Riverboro story! Look
at the way they talk! What was that' bout being BETROTHED'?"

"Betrothed is a genteel word for engaged to be married,"
explained the crushed and chastened author; and it was fortunate
the doting old man did not notice her eyes in the twilight, or he
might have known that tears were not far away.

"Well, that's all right, then; I'm as ignorant as Cooper's cow
when it comes to the dictionary. How about what's-his-name
callin' the girl 'Naysweet'?"

"I thought myself that sounded foolish,:" confessed Rebecca; "but
it's what the Doctor calls Cora when he tries to persuade her not
to quarrel with his mother who comes to live with them. I know
they don't say it in Riverboro or Temperance, but I thought