It had a showy and kind of a shaky look. And I found that that extended to Abel’ses business arraingments. Amongst the other ornaments of his buildin’s wuz mortgages, quite a lot of ’em, and of almost every variety. He had gin his only child S. Annie (she wuz named after her mother Sally Ann, but wrote it this way),—he had gin S. Annie a showy education, a showy weddin’, and a showy settin’-out. But she had had the good luck to marry a sensible man, though poor. He took S. Annie, and the brackets, and piano, and hangin’ lamps, and baskets, and crystal bead lambrequins, her father had gin her, moved ’em all into a good sensible small house, and went to work to get a practice and a livin’. He wuz a lawyer by perswasion. Wall, he worked hard, day and night, for three little children come to ’em pretty fast, and S. Annie consumed a good deal in trimmin’s and cheap lace to ornament ’em: she wuz her father’s own girl for ornament. But he worked so hard, and had so many irons in the fire, and kep ’em all so hot, that he got a good livin’ for ’em, and begun to lay up money towards byin’ ’em a house, a home. [Illustration: “A lawyer by perswasion.”] He talked a sight, so folks said that knew him well, about his consumin’ desire and aim to get his wife and children into a little home of their own, into a safe little haven, where they could be a little sheltered from the storms of life if the big waves should wash him away. They say that that wuz on his mind day and night, and wuz what nerved his hand so in the fray, and made him so successful. Wall, he had laid up about nine hundred dollars towards a home, every dollar on it earned by hard work and consecrated by this deathless hope and affection. The house he had got his mind on only cost about a thousand dollars. Loontown property is cheap. Wall, he had laid up nine hundred, and wuz a-beginnin’ to save on the last hundred, for he wouldn’t run in debt a cent anyway, when he wuz took voyalent sick there to Abel’ses: he and S. Annie had come home for a visit of a day or two; and he bein’ so run down, and weak with his hard day work, and his night work, that he suckumbed to his sickness, and passed away the day before I got there. Wall, S. Annie wuz jest overcome with grief the day I got there, but the day follerin’ she begun to take some interest, and help her father in makin’ preparations for the funeral. The body wuz embalmed, accordin’ to Abel’ses and S. Annie’s wish, and the funeral wuz to be on the Sunday follerin’, and on that Abel and S. Annie now bent their energies. To begin with, S. Annie had a hull suit of clear crape made for herself, with a veil that touched the ground; she also had three other suits commenced, for more common wear, trimmed heavy with crape, one of which she ordered for sure the next week, for she said “she couldn’t stir out of the house in any other color but black.” I knew jest how dear crape wuz, and I tackled her on the subject, and says I,—