Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction
“With that, I put it fer the license; got it, an’ was back in less ’n
half an haour, most tuckered aout with the flurry of the hull concern.
Quick as I’d been, Bewlah hed faound time tew whip on her best gaoun,
fix up her hair, and put a couple er white chrissanthymums intew her
hand’chif pin. Fer the fust time in her life, she looked
harnsome,—leastways _I_ thought so,—with a pretty color in her cheeks,
somethin’ brighter ’n a larf shinin’ in her eyes, and her lips smilin’
an’ tremblin’, as she come to me an’ whispered so ’s ’t none er the rest
could hear,—
“‘Hiram, don’t yeou dew it, ef yeou’d ruther not. I’ve stood it a gret
while alone, an’ I guess I can ag’in.’
“Never yeou mind what I said or done abaout that; but we was merried ten
minutes arfter, ’fore the kitchen fire, with Dr. Parr an’ aour hired
man, fer witnesses; an’ then we all went up tew aunt. She was goan fast,
but she understood what I told her, hed strength tew fill up the hole in
the will, an’ to say, a-kissin’ Bewlah, ‘Yeou’ll be a good wife, an’
naow yeou ain’t a poor one.’
“I couldn’t help givin’ a peek tew the will, and there I see not Hiram
Flint nor Josiah Flint, but Bewlah Flint, wrote every which way, but as
plain as the nose on yer face. ‘It won’t make no odds, dear,’ whispered
my wife, peekin’ over my shoulder. ‘Guess it won’t!’ sez I, aout laoud;
‘I’m glad on’t, and it ain’t a cent more’n yeou derserve.’
“That pleased aunt. ’Riz me, Hiram,’ sez she; an’ when I’d got her easy,
she put her old arms raound my neck, an’ tried to say, ‘God bless you,
dear—,’ but died a doin’ of it; an’ I ain’t ashamed tew say I boo-hooed
real hearty, when I laid her daown, fer she was dreadf’l good tew me,
an’ I don’t forgit her in a hurry.”
“How’s Bewlah?” asked Dick, after the little tribute of respect all paid
to Aunt Siloam’s memory, by a momentary silence.
“Fust-rate! that harum-scarum venter er mine was the best I ever made.
She’s done waal by me, hes Bewlah; ben a grand good haousekeeper, kin
kerry on the farm better’n me, any time, an’ is as dutif’l an’ lovin’ a
wife as,—waal, as annything that _is_ extra dutif’l and lovin’.”
“Got any boys to brag of?”
“We don’t think much o’ boys daown aour way; they’re ’mazin’ resky stock
to fetch up,—alluz breakin’ baounds, gittin’ intew the paound, and
wurryin’ your life aout somehaow ’nother. Gals naow doos waal; I’ve got
six o’ the likeliest the is goin’, every one on ’em is the very moral of
Bewlah,—red hair, black eyes, quiet ways, an’ a mold ’side the nose.
Baby’s ain’t growed yet; but I expect tew see it in a consid’able state
o’ forrardness, when I git hum, an’ wouldn’t miss it fer the world.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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