even at home."

"I don't like fer anything to puzzle me," said Luke, with a little
laugh, "an' I'll swear Miss Harriet's a riddle. I would a-swore on the
stand a week ago that she wus as big a fool about Wambush as a woman
kin git to be, but now--well, I reckon she's jest like the rest. Let
the feller they keer fer git a black eye an' have bad luck, an' they'll
sidle up to the fust good-lookin' cuss they come across. A man that
reads novels to git his marryin' knowledge frum is in pore business;
besides the book hain't writ that could explain a woman unless it is
the Great Book, an' it wouldn't fit no woman o' this day an' time."

"You think, then, Luke," said Westerfelt, "that a good woman--a real
good woman--could love twice in--in a short space of time?"

"Gewhillikins! What a question; they kin love a hundred times before
you kin say Jack Robinson with yore mouth open. When you git married,
John, you must make up your mind that yo're marryin' fer some'n else
besides dern foolishness. The Bible says the prime intention of the
business wus to increase an' multiply; ef you an' yore wife ever git to
multiplyin', you an' her won't find much time to suck thumbs an' talk
love an' pick flowers an' press 'em in books an' the like. Folks may
say what they damn please about women lovin' the most; it's the feller
mighty nigh ever' whack that acts the fool. I was plumb crazy about
Marthy, an' used to be afeerd she wus so fur gone on me that she
wouldn't take a sufficient supply o' victuals to keep up 'er strength.
That wus when I was courtin' of 'er an' losin' sleep, an' one thing or
other. After we wus married, though, me an' 'er mother come to words
one day about a shoat pig she claimed had her mark on its yeer an' was
penned up with mine, an' she up an' told me out o' spite that the very