could hold what that boy can. She says young Dr. Brown says 't he
wants to come 'n' observe him to-night 'f he don't have to go over to
Meadville to get two of his saws sharpened. Mrs. Brown says he says
he's goin' to write a paper for the Investigatin' Society, but I don't
see how that's goin' to help the Sons o' Veterans none. Doctors'
observations 'n' investigations 's all right 's far 's they go, but I
don' fancy as they can be made to take the place o' no eat up puddin'
inside o' no son of a veteran. 'N' anyhow, Henry Ward Beecher or no
Henry Ward Beecher, Mrs. Craig 's jus' about frantic over her cat. She
says there's cat's hair everywhere 'n' the cat ain't nowhere. She was
doin' out her churnin' 'n' she found some hairs in the butter. I asked
her 'f maybe Augustus hadn't fed the cat to the cow, 'n' she says they
thought o' that, but her husband says 't ain't possible, for there
ain't room for a cat to turn over in the place where a cow turns
everything over afore she swallows it. Mrs. Craig says, besides, 't
she asked Augustus, but he jus' said, 'Wash zhat?--Zhat a cow?--Zhi a
cow?--Zhu a cow?' 'n' she see plain 'n' forever where he got the name
o' bein' so bad, for she was dyin' to switch him 'n' couldn't in honor
say as she had any real reason to. But all the same she says she's as
sure as Fate 't him 'n' no one else 's at the bottom o' her cat--only
how in all creation are you to get it out o' him? She says there was
hairs in the washtub 'n' hairs in the bluein', 'n' when she gathered
the sweet peas afore supper she see a hair on a sweet-pea pod. While
we was talkin' suthin' tickled her 'n' she found a hair in her collar.

"Gran'ma Mullins came along up from the crick while we was talkin',
'n' she had her tale o' woe same 's the rest. Seems little Jane 's
quit her thumb, owin' to the quinine, 'n' took to bitin' holes 'n'
chewin' 'n' suckin' everythin' that she can lay hands on. She's chewed
her pillow-slip 'n' bit her sheet 'n' sucked right down to the brass