looked sort o' dreamy and wanderin' and there wuz a kind of a
wrapped smile on her face all the time. She had a roll of paper
in her hand and I didn't dislike her looks a mite.

Finally the oldest female opened her lips, some as a steel trap
would open sudden and kinder sharp, and sez she: "I am Miss Deacon
Tutt, of Tuttville, and this is my second daughter Ardelia.
Cordelia is my oldest, and I have 4 younger than Ardelia."

I bowed real polite and said, "I wuz glad to make the acquaintance
of the hull 7 on 'em." I can be very genteel when I set out,
almost stylish.

"I s'pose," says she, "I am talkin' to Josiah Allen's wife?"

I gin her to understand that that wuz my name and my station, and
she went on, and sez she: "I have hearn on you through my
husband's 2d cousin, Cephas Tutt."

"Cephas," sez she, "bein' wrote to by me on the subject of
Ardelia, the same letter containin' seven poems of hern, and on
bein' asked to point out the quickest way to make her name and
fame known to the world at large, wrote back that he havin' always
dealt in butter and lard, wuzn't up to the market price in poetry,
and that you would be a good one to go to for advice. And so,"
sez she a pointin' to a bag she carried on her arm (a hard lookin'
bag made of crash with little bullets and knobs of embroidery on
it), "and so we took this bag full of Ardelia's poetry and come on
the mornin' train, Cephas'es letter havin' reached us at nine
o'clock last night. I am a woman of business."