Courtship -- Fiction; Mate selection -- Fiction; United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
to the tune of Chany,--an' I thought the singin' didn't sound so
mournful kinder as it had orter,--not nigh so mournful as when we
buried Marthy Foster, she was a Harris, you remember, and second cousin
to Bathaliny on the father's side: so I looked up to see if Bathaliny
was givin' out on the air; for, bein' a near relation, I naturally
felt a care for the mournin', and wanted to see Emma buried in decent
shape, if she was always a scrawny, pindlin' little thing, an' her
mother Ezikel's first wife. An' I'll be blowed if that Bathaliny warn't
a-sneakin' off round the thorn-bushes,--you know where they be, close
by where Frank Wiswell was buried, his mother bein' a Pettingill,--she
was a-skulkin' off, if you'll believe it, round them thorn-bushes with
Peter Mixup, or Old Evil One, or whatever he calls himself. I wanted to
holler; but, thinks I to myself, I'm a relation of the corpse, if it
is only by marriage, and I ain't goin' to spoil the solemnity of this
funeral if I never sets eyes on that scandiculous hussy again! An' off
they went; an' Tim Bowlin see 'em goin' to Joe Brown's, an' of course
they are married long ago, he bein' a justice. An' I says to myself,
'Mis' Sanford ought to know, an' I'll go over an' tell her, bein' as
it's one of our family.' It does seem as if her mother's children was
bound to bring disgrace on themselves and everybody else. Look at
Hannah Clemens! only she ain't to be looked at by an honest woman. The
nasty hussy!"
Aunty Jeff's breath failed entirely at this point; and she fell back in
her chair, her whole person quivering with excitement and indignation.
Dr. Sanford laughed unrestrainedly, and Flossy and Patty were not slow
to follow his lead.
"She's Bathaliny Mixon by this time," aunty Jeff burst out afresh.
"All he wanted of her was the money she had in the bank. He was
bespoke to 'Mandy West too; an' I shouldn't be a mite surprised ef
he got his livin' goin' round marryin' girls just that way. To think
one of our folks should marry a brigamist," continued the irate lady,
unconsciously punning, "and demean herself to take up with a Mixon!
He's a dreadful unfacalized critter; an' that's what I've always said,
an' what I'll stick to, ef I was to be run through the wringin'-machine
the next minute, like that baby's hand over to Samoset--poor thing! He
never stuck to nothin' 'thout 'twas Mr. Breck, and them two never got
no good out of one 'nother. A dreadful unfacalized critter! An' I'm in
as big a hurry as a rat in the wall, Mis' Sanford, but thought you'd
want to know, owin' to havin' breakfast to get. The ungrateful hussy!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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