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Her wide Irish nostrils sniffed a familiar smell. "Well, fur th' land, Mis' Phut! If I was housekeeper here, an' cud have hothouse strawberries, an' swatebreads undher glass, an' sparrowgrass, an' chicken, an' ice crame, the way you can, whiniver yuh loike, I wouldn't be a-eatin' cornbeef an' cabbage. Not me."
"And then," she went on, suddenly throwing out an imperative gesture of silence "and then, after I've been in this here house a long, long time, and you all gits so's you like me awful awful awful well, then some day you'll go in that room there and that room there and in the kitchen and out on the porch and down the cellar and out in the smoke-house and the wood-house and the loft and all around oh, ever' place and in here and up the stairs and all them rooms up there and you'll look behind all the doors and in all the cubboards and under all the beds and then you'll look sorry-like, and holler out, kind o' skeert, and you'll say: 'Where is Mary Alice Smith? And then you'll wait and listen and hold yer breath; and then somepin' 'll holler back, away fur off, and say: 'Oh she has gone home! And then ever'thing'll be all still ag'in, and you'll be afraid to holler any more and you dursn't play and you can't laugh, and yer throat'll thist hurt and hurt, like you been a-eatin' too much calamus-root er somepin'!" And as the little gipsy concluded her weird prophecy, with a final flourish of her big pale eyes, we glanced furtively at one another's awestruck faces, with a superstitious dread of a vague indefinite disaster most certainly awaiting us around some shadowy corner of the future.
"A-eatin' 'is breakfus' as ever was!" repeated the old man, without moving. "And why not, Ancient?" "Why not?" he repeated disdainfully. "'Cause breakfus' can't be ate by a corp', can it?" "A corpse, Ancient; what do you mean?" "I means as a corp' aren't got no right to eat a breakfus' no!" "Why, I no, certainly not." "Consequently, you aren't a corp', you'll be tellin me."
"'Sartinly not, ma'am, says I; an' I was reckonin' she was wantin' to borrer money. But what do ye s'pose it was, Norman? She goes and she says, says she, kinder hesitatin' like yet, 'Would ye mind, capt'in, a-eatin' with yer fork, 'stead of yer knife?
I comes down 'ere, and what does I find? I finds ye a-eatin' your breakfus' just as if theer never 'adn't been no storm at all no, nor nothin' else." "I'm sure," said I, pouring out a second cup of tea, "I'm sure I would sooner you should find my corpse than any one else, and am sorry to have disappointed you again, but really, Ancient "
"I won't tell you that," I laughed, "because you'd turn and stare into their faces." "So he vould!" broke in Maw. "How often I gotta tell you, Abey? You got no more manners dan if you vas a jimpanzy." "All right," said the magnate, grinning good naturedly. "I'll keep a-eatin' my dinner. Who is it?" "It's Mrs.
"I don't see it oh yes no. It's only a cloud. Who ever heard of the port-bow of a raft? Bah! your eyes have been squintin'. Not a bit of it, I see it low lyin'; why, I see the palms and I see the nuts ah, and the monkeys, no doubt a-eatin' of 'em hip, hip, hurrah!" Such were some of the exclamations, ending in a long, deep-toned, British cheer, with which the discovery of land was greeted.
"'I never tells you-alls, he says, 'about how the Ratons gets afire mighty pecooliar, an' comes near a-roastin' of me up some, do I? It's this a-way: I'm pervadin' 'round one afternoon tryin' to compass a wild turkey, which thar's bands of 'em that Fall in the Ratons a-eatin' of the pinyon-nuts.
But I only jest stepped over t' ask if you'd happened to find that lodger o' mine anywheres why, Lord bless me!" she broke off, halting in the doorway as she beheld Ravenslee. "Lordy Lord, if he ain't a-settin' there, cool as ever was! If he ain't a-eatin' an' drinkin' an' me cookin' him at this moment the loveliest mutton chop you ever see!
For a time he felt that he could not endure the pain, and he grew haggard under it. "What's the matter, my boy?" said Mr. Growther abruptly to him one evening. "You look as if something was a-gnawin' and a-eatin' your very heart out." He satisfied his old friend by saying that he did not feel well, and surely one sick at heart as he was might justly say this. Mr.
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