Complete Project Gutenberg William Dean Howells Works by William Dean Howells
page 67 of 132 (50%)
page 67 of 132 (50%)
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"Laws, mother!" said Miss Mela; "what you got that old thing on for? If I'd 'a' known you'd 'a' come down in that!" "Coonrod said it was all right, Mely," said her mother. Miss Mela explained to the Marches: "Mother was raised among the Dunkards, and she thinks it's wicked to wear anything but a gray silk even for dress-up." "You hain't never heared o' the Dunkards, I reckon," the old woman said to Mrs. March. "Some folks calls 'em the Beardy Men, because they don't never shave; and they wash feet like they do in the Testament. My uncle was one. He raised me." "I guess pretty much everybody's a Beardy Man nowadays, if he ain't a Dunkard!" Miss Mela looked round for applause of her sally, but March was saying to his wife: "It's a Pennsylvania German sect, I believe--something like the Quakers. I used to see them when I was a boy." "Aren't they something like the Mennists?" asked Mrs. Mandel. "They're good people," said the old woman, "and the world 'd be a heap better off if there was more like 'em." Her son came in and laid a soft shawl over her shoulders before he shook hands with the visitors. "I am glad you found your way here," he said to them. |
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