"Seems to me," says she, "when he started to git sleepy, he didn't
gap ez wide ez he gen'ly does--an' I'm 'feered he's a-gittin' it
now." An', sir, with that, she thess gathered up her apron an'
mopped her face in it an' give way. An' ez for me, I didn't seem
to have no mo' backbone down my spinal colume 'n a feather bolster
has, I was that weak.

I never ast her why she didn't sen' for our own preacher. I knowed
then ez well ez ef she'd 'a' told me why she done it--all on
account o' Sonny bein' so tickled over the 'Piscopals' meetin's.

It was mos' nine o'clock then, an' a dark night, an' rainin', but
I never said a word--they wasn't no room round the edges o' the
lump in my throat for words to come out ef they'd 'a' been one
surgin' up there to say, which they wasn't--but I thess went out
an' saddled my horse an' I rid into town. Stopped first at the
doctor's an' sent him out, though I knowed't wouldn't do no good;
Sonny wouldn't 'low him to tech it; but I sent him out anyway, to
look at it, an', ef possible, console wife a little. Then I rid on
to the rector's an' ast him to come out immejate an' baptize
Sonny. But nex' day was his turn to preach down at Sandy Crik, an'
he couldn't come that night, but he promised to come right after
services nex' mornin'--which he done--rid the whole fo'teen mile
from Sandy Crik here in the rain, too, which I think is a evidence
o' Christianity, though no sech acts is put down in my book o'
"evidences" where they ought rightfully to be.

Well, sir, when I got home that night, I found wife a heap
cheerfuler. The doctor had give Sonny a big apple to eat an'