till the mountains all echoed it and re-echoed it, so
that you would have thought a thousand devils had broke
loose, a'most.

"Such a gettin' up stairs you never did see.

"Well, they kept up this tantrum for the space of two or
three hundred yards, when they came to a small, low,
dismal-lookin' house, when the man gave the door a kick,
that sent the latch a flyin' off to the t'other eend of
the room, and fell right in on the floor, on his face,
as flat as a flounder, a groanin' and a moanin' like any
thing, and lookin' as mean as a critter that was sent
for, and couldn't come, and as obstinate as a pine stump.

"'What ails you?' sais she, 'to act like Old Scratch that
way? You ought to be ashamed of yourself, to behave so
to a woman. What on airth is there about me to frighten
you so, you great onmannerly, onmarciful, coward, you.
Come, scratch up, this minute.'

"Well, the more she talked, the more he groaned; but the
devil a word, good or bad, could she get out of him at
all. With that, she stoops down, and catches up his
staff, and says she, 'I have as great a mind to give you
a jab with this here toothpick, where your mother used
to spank you, as ever I had in all my life. But if you
want it, my old 'coon, you must come and get it; for if
you won't help me, I shall help myself.'