"Henrietta," I said, sternly, as I rose to my feet, "I've asked you once
not to say ugly words like that."

"I'll go make the lightning toilet, Henrietta. Do run like a good girl
and ask Mrs. Hargrove to let Cousin Jasmine have her cup of coffee right
away. I'll be there before the rest are dead from hunger," and Cousin
James skilfully interrupted the threatened feminine clash as he emptied
my glass bowl into his tin can and stuck the sharp stick in the ground
for future reference. Even Henrietta's pointed allusion to his toilet
had not in the least ruffled his equanimity or brought a shade of
consciousness to his face.

"Mis' Hargrove said that the Bible said not for any woman to say a
blessing at any table or at any place that anybody can hear her, when
Cousin Marfy wanted to be polite to the Lord by saying just a little one
and go on before we was all too hungry," answered Henrietta, in her most
scornfully tolerant voice. "If women eat out loud before everybody why
can't they pray their thank-you out loud like any man?"

"Answer her, Evelina," laughed Cousin James, as he hurried down the walk
away from us.

"Henrietta," I asked, in a calmly argumentative tone of voice as she and
I walked up the path to the house, "didn't Mr. Haley talk to you just
yesterday and tell you how wicked it is for you to use--use such strong
words as you do?"

Mr. Haley had told me just a few days ago that he and Aunt Augusta had
agreed to open their campaign of reform on Henrietta by a pastoral
lecture from him, to be followed strongly by a neighborly one from her.