ready to see some as tall bargainin' as wuz
ever done in Punkin Centre. 'Cause Si, he
could see a bargain through a six-inch plank
on a dark night, and Ezra could hear a dollar
bill rattle in a bag of feathers a mile off,
and we all felt mighty sartin suthin' wuz a
goin' to happen. Wall, Si, he sort er stood
'round, didn't say much, and Ezra got most
uncommonly busy--he had more business
than a town marshal on circus day.

Wall, after he had sold Aunt Nancy
Smith three yards of caliker, and Ruben
Hendricks a jack-knife, and swapped Jim
Lawson a plug of tobacker fer a muskrat
hide, he sed: "How's things over your
way, Si?" Si remarked: "things wuz
'bout as usual, only the water had bin most
uncommon high, White Fork had busted
loose and overflowed everything, Sprosby's
mill wuz washed out, and Lige Willits's
paster wuz all under water, which made it
purty hard on the cows, and Lige had to
strain the milk two or three times to git the
minnews out of it. Whitaker's young 'uns
wuz all havin' measles to onct, and thar wuz
a revival goin' on at the Red Top Baptist
church, and most every one had got religion,
and things wuz a runnin' 'long 'bout
as usual."