pride wuz so awfully, dretfully wicked, and it wuz a shame that she
wuz so ongrateful as to want a home of her own." And then they
would set down and rest.

Wall, the family wuz in a sufferin' state. The Town allowed 'em
one dollar a week. But how wuz ten human beings to live on a
dollar a week. The children worked every chance they got, but
they couldn't earn enough to keep 'em in shoes, let alone other
clothin' and vittles. And the old house wuz too cold for 'em to
stay in durin' the cold weather, it wuz for Grandma Smedley,
anyway, if the children could stand it she couldn't. And what wuz
to be done. A cold winter wuz a cumin' on, and it wouldn't delay
a minute because Jim Smedley had got shot, and his wife had
follered him, into, let us hope, a happier huntin' ground than he
had ever found in earthly forests.

Wall, I proposed to have a pound party for 'em. I said they might
have it to our house if they wanted it, but if they thought they
wanted it in a more central place (our house wuz quite a little to
one side), why we could have it to the schoolhouse.

I proposed to Josiah the first one. He wuz a settin' by the fire
relapsed into silence. It wuz a cold night outside, but the red
curtains wuz down at our sitting-room winders, shettin' out the
cold drizzlin' storm of hail and snow that wuz a deseendin' onto
the earth. The fire burned up warm and bright, and we sot there
in our comfortable home, with the teakettle singin' on the stove,
and the tea-table set out cosy and cheerful, for Josiah had been
away and I had waited supper for him.