"Well, after it was settled as, willy-nilly, we'd got to back-seat it to Meadville together, Gran'ma Mullins begin about what a very superior man Rufus was 'n' what a very superior boy he used to be. Mrs. Macy did n't say nothin', 'cause it was easy to see as she 'd really took it a good deal to heart bein' thirded for sixteen miles; but Gran'ma Mullins went right on with when she lived in Meadville 'n' taught school that winter she was seventeen. She said as Rufus was in her middle class that winter 'n' _mos_' superior. He was nine 'n' the oldest o' nine, there bein' two pairs o' twins; she said it looked like Tabitha 'n' Sammy had took the Bible about replenishin' the earth right on to their own shoulders. Gran'ma Mullins said it was suthin' to make any one content to teach school forever, only to look at 'em; she said she should always think it was that as made all the men in Meadville so ready to go to the war 'n' the women so calm over their gettin' killed; she said no one wanted to get married there, anyhow." "But she--" interposed Mrs. Lathrop, quickly. "Well, but she knew he had a bullet in him 'n the Roman fever 'n' a pension," said Susan, "she knowed she was pretty safe--I would n't blame her under them circumstances. But that's neither here nor anywhere else, Mrs. Lathrop, 'n' what with your interruptin' Lord knows when we will get around to Rufus, for I keep forgettin' he 's dead 'n' rememberin' him alive, 'n' no one as remembers Rufus Timmans alive could ever tell anything about him, 'n' you know that as well as I do. Gran'ma Mullins said herself to-day as he was a great problem to her in school, 'n' she used to study him out of all comparison to the other children. Every one admitted as he was superior, 'n' yet no one knowed jus' why. She says he really _was_ superior in lots o' ways, 'n' he whittled her a open-work ink-stand once for a Christmas as she 's used for toothpicks ever since, but she says the inside o' his ideas was surely most amazin'. She says she had him for two years, 'n' all she could say was as in all them two years she was mostly struck dumb by him. She says she used to go up 'n' talk to Tabitha, 'n' Tilda Ann used to come down 'n' talk with her, but nothin' ever seemed to come of it. Tilda Ann declared up 'n' down as he was a fool through 'n' through, 'n' poor Tabitha was awful nervous for fear he 'd invent somethin' in bed some night as would surely blow the house up. Seems he was so ahead at ten years old that he wanted to study to be a chemist, 'n' so behind that he spelt it 'kemst,' 'n' him all of ten years old.