"It's that 'Liza Pike again. Just as soon as that child hatches a idea,
the whole town takes to helping her feather it out. She got Mis'
Bostick's bed moved to the front window, and then found that Nath
Mosbey's fence kept her from seeing the Road where the procession are
a-going into the Meeting-house yard. But that didn't down her none at
all, for when I left she had Nath and Buck and Mr. Petway a-knocking
down the two panels of fence, and leaving Mis' Bostick a clean sweep of
view, Did you ever?" and mother Mayberry chuckled over the small
sister's triumph over what to the rest of Providence would have seemed
an insurmountable obstacle.
"It's just like her, the darling!" exclaimed the singer lady
appreciatively.
"And she have got the Deacon all tucked out until he is a sight to
behold. She have made Mis' Peavey starch his white tie until it sets
out on both sides like cat whiskers, and have pinned a bokay on his
coat 'most as big as the bride's. Then she have reached his forelock up
on his head so he looks like Martin Luther, and she have got him
a-settin' down, so as not to get out of gear none. Mis' Bostick is
a-wearing a little white rose pinned on her night-gown, and they is
honeysuckle trailed all over the bed. But here am I a-chavering with
you all, with time a-flying and no chance of putting salt on her tail
this day. Please, Tom Mayberry, go down to the store and buy a nickel's
worth of starch, and it's none of your business how I want to use it.
I'm going to look a surprise for you myself, before sundown."
"Well, how did you get along with him, honeybird?" she asked eagerly,
as they ascended the front steps together, while the Doctor strode down
the Road on his errand.
"Beautifully!" exclaimed the singer lady with enthusiasm and the very
faintest of blushes.
"I thought so from his looks," answered the beguiled young Doctor's
wily mother. "A man always do have that satisfied martyr-smile when he
thinks he are doing something just to please a woman. Now, honey-child,
you ain't got nothing to do but frill out your own sweet self; and make
a job of it while you are about it." With which command Mother Mayberry
dismissed Miss Wingate up the stairs to her dormer-window room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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