hadn't been so humbly. The Pesters are a humbly lot. But I didn't think it
out loud, and didn't ophold the law for feelin' so. I sez in pityin' tones,
for I wuz truly sorry for Cassandra Keeler:

"How did it end?"

"It hain't ended," sez she, "it only took place a month ago and she has got
her grit up and won't pay; and no knowin' how it will end; she lays there
amoulderin'."

I don't believe Cassanda wuz mouldy, but that is Serepta's way of talkin',
very flowery.

"Well," sez I, "do you think the weather is goin' to moderate?"

I truly felt that I dassent speak to her about any human bein' under the
sun, not knowin' what turn she would give to the talk, bein' so embittered.
But I felt that the weather wuz safe, and cotton stockin's, and hens, and
factory cloth, and I kep' her down on them for more'n two hours.

But good land! I can't blame her for bein' embittered agin men and the laws
they've made, for it seems as if I never see a human creeter so afflicted
as Serepta Pester has been all her life.

Why, her sufferin's date back before she wuz born, and that's goin' pretty
fur back. Her father and mother had some difficulty and he wuz took down
with billerous colick, voylent four weeks before Serepta wuz born. And some
think it wuz the hardness between 'em and some think it wuz the gripin' of
the colick when he made his will, anyway he willed Serepta away, boy or
girl whichever it wuz, to his brother up on the Canada line.