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While yet the question echoed in his expanding soul he hailed a passing skiff: "Strangeh! How fur now is it to the Mississippi River?" "Theh 'tis!" the man cried, pointing down the current. "Down by that air willer point!" Those first free days on the Mississippi River revealed to Nelia Crele a woman she had never known before.
Well, they've come drappin' down ag'in, an' they landed into New Madrid yestehd'y evenin'. Likely they 'lowed to raid some commissary down b'low cayn't tell what they did 'low to do. But they picked good pickin's down theh! Feller come down lookin' fo' a woman, hisn's I expect. Anyhow, he's a strangeh on the riveh. He's got a nice power boat, an' likely he's got money. If he has, good-bye!
"Well, seh now Ah was steddyin' if yo' kin'ly grant yo' grace of pahdon, seh lahkly 'twould compliment Miss Cahline ef yo' was to git yo'se'f fitted to one a' them unnatchel limbs, seh. Yo' sho'ly go'n' a' pesteh huh rec'lections with that theh saggin' sleeve, Mahstah Majah." But this kindly meant proposal I felt compelled to reject.
The preacher joined the laughter. "Yas, suh!" he admitted, more gravely, "I know. I 'lowed, one time, that I'd git to know this yeah happiness that comes of liquor, an' I shore took one awful gulp. Three nights an' three days I neveh slept a wink, an' me settin' theh by the fireplace, waitin' to be lit up an' jubulutin', but hit didn't come.
Well, theh I was, with a nice man, an' if I didn't divorce that first scoundrel where'd I be? So I let the dress go, an' mebby you'll b'lieve hit, an' mebby yo' won't, but I had $18.97, an' I paid my $17.50 real reg'lar, an' I had jest what was left, $1.47, an' me ready to bust out crying, feelin' so mean about marryin' into an old walking skirt.
"Ban, was you ever in the State of Ohio?" "A long time ago." "Are Ohio folks liable to be loony?" "Not more than others, I reckon, Jimmy." "Pretty enthoosiastic about themselves, though, ain't theh?" "Why, I don't know. It's a nice country there, Jimmy." "There was one on Number Three sure thought so.
Minah," Jim Caope suggested. "Mrs. Minah!" Mrs. Caope exclaimed. "Talk about riveh ladies theh's one. She owns Mozart Bend. Seventeen mile of Mississippi River's her'n, an' nobody but knows hit, if not to start with, then by the end. She stands theh, at the breech of her rifle, and, ho law, cayn't she shoot! She's real respectable, too, cyarful an' 'cordin' to law.
Richling reflected with downcast eyes. "It seems to me," he said, when he had passed his hand across his mouth in apparent meditation and looked up, "seems to me I'd conclude both, without delay." "Yes? But accawding to what fawmule, Mistoo Itchlin? 'Ay, 'tis theh is the 'ub, in fact, as Lawd By'on say. Is it to migs the two style' that you advise?"
As he entered the cabin, a burly, whiskered man looked up and said: "How's he coming, Slip?" "Doc says he's all right. Jest said a woman shot him for tryin' to mind her business, kind-a laughed about hit." "Theh! I always knowed a man that'd chase women the way he done'd git what's comin'. A woman'll make trouble quicker'n anything else on Gawd's earth, she will." "Sho! Buck, yo's soured!"
A young negro was busily washing the broad veranda, but he stopped and straightened at sight of the young horsewoman. "Sambo, where's your mistress?" "Clar t' goodness, Miss Jinny, she was heah leetle while ago." "Yo' git atter Miss Lilly, yo' good-fo'-nuthin' niggah," said Ned, warmly. "Ain't yo' be'n raised better'n to stan' theh wif yo'mouf open?"
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