a good lot of children for one family, but if they love each other--
"

"Love! Shoo! I declare, Mis' Mayberry, looks to me like you swallow
what folks give you in this world whole, pit and all, and never bat
a eye. I've got to go home and put on Buck's and Mr. Peavey's supper
and sprinkle down some of my wash." And without further parley Mrs.
Peavey marched home through a little swinging gate in the wall that
had been for years a gap through which a turbid stream had flowed to
trouble Mother's peaceful waters.

"It do seem Mis' Peavey are a victim of a most pitiful unrest," said
Mother to herself as she watched with satisfaction Ruffle Neck tuck
the last despised little Hoosier under her soft gray breast. "Some
folks act like they had dyspepsy of the mind. Dearie me, I must go
and take a glass of cream to my honey-bird, for that between-meal
snack that Tom Mayberry are so perticular about." And she started
down toward the spring-house under the hill.

And returning a half hour later with the cool glass in her hand, she
was guided by the sound of happy voices to the front porch, where,
under the purple wistaria vine, she found the singer lady absorbed
in the construction of a most worldly garment for the doll daughter
of Eliza Pike, who was watching its evolution with absorbed
interest.

"Pleas'm, Miss Elinory, make it a little bit longer, 'cause I want
her to have a beau," besought the small mother, as she anxiously
watched the measuring of the skirt.