easy 'nough, or raound it, if she took plenty o' time." But perhaps
Rhapsena appreciated a mouth (in a husband) that never was given to
"jawin'," and which uttered only kind words during her brief span of
married life. And there was precious little leisure for kissing at
Pleasant River!

As Jabe had passed the store, a few minutes before, one of the boys had
called out, facetiously, "Shet yer mouth when ye go by the deepot,
Laigs; the train's comin' in!" But he only smiled placidly, though it
was an ancient joke, the flavor of which had just fully penetrated the
rustic skull; and the villagers could not resist titillating the sense
of humor with it once or twice a month. Neither did Jabez mind being
called "Laigs," the local pronunciation of the word "legs;" in fact,
his good humor was too deep to be ruffled. His "cistern of wrathfulness
was so small, and the supply pipe so unready," that it was next to
impossible to "put him out," so the natives said.

He was a man of tolerable education; the only son of his parents, who
had endeavored to make great things of him, and might perhaps have
succeeded, if he hadn't always had so little time at his
disposal,--hadn't been "so drove," as he expressed it. He went to the
village school as regularly as he couldn't help, that is, as many days
as he couldn't contrive to stay away, until he was fourteen. From there
he was sent to the Academy, three miles distant; but his mother soon
found that he couldn't make the two trips a day and be "under cover by
candlelight;" so the plan of a classical education was abandoned, and he
was allowed to speed the home plough,--a profession which he pursued
with such moderation that his father, when starting him down a furrow,
used to hang his dinner-pail on his arm and, bidding him good-by, beg
him, with tears in his eyes, to be back before sun-down.