to me as well as to my sister.

She was as good as a play with Bob, and me and my wife, and another
married party here and there, often died of laughing to hear her talk
about him. Because the way that an unmarried female regards the male is
fearful and wonderful to the knowing mind.

Mary spoke of him as if she'd invented him, and knew his works, like a
clockmaker knows a clock. He interested her something tremendous, and got
to be her only subject presently.

"Mr. Battle was the very man for a farmer like me," she said once, "and
I'm sure I thank God's goodness for sending him along. He's a proper
bailiff about the place, and that clever with the men that nobody quarrels
with him. Of course he does nothing without consulting me; but he's never
mistaken, and apart from the worldly side of Mr. Battle, there's the
religious side."

I hadn't heard about that and didn't expect to, for Mary, though a good
straight woman, as wouldn't have robbed a lamb of its milk, or done a
crooked act for untold money, wasn't religious in the church-going or
Bible-reading sense, same as me and my wife were. In fact she never went
to church, save for a wedding or a funeral; but it appeared that Mr.
Battle set a good bit of store by it, and when she asked him, if he
thought so much of it, why he didn't go, he said it was only his
unfortunate state of poverty and his clothes and boots that kept him away.

"Not that the Lord minds," said Bob, "but the churchgoers do, and a pair
of pants like mine ain't welcomed, except by the Salvationists; and I
don't hold with that body."