Of co’se, we can’t be shore thet they was rejoicin’ expressed in the underbrush an’ the forests, ez he says, but I do say, ez I said before, thet Sonny an’ the little girl has had the purtiest an’ joyfulest weddin’ I ever see in this county, an’ a good time was had by everybody present.  An’ it has made me mighty happy—­it an’ its results.

They say a son is a son till he gets him a wife, but ’t ain’t so in this case, shore.  I’ve gained thess ez sweet a daughter ez I could ‘a’ picked out ef I’d ‘a’ had the whole world to select from.

Little Mary Elizabeth has been mighty dear to our hearts for a long time, an’ when wife passed away, although the weddin’ hadn’t took place yet, she bestowed a mother’s partin’ blessin’ on her, an’ give Sonny a lot o’ private advice about her disposition, an’ how he ought to reg’late hisself to deal with it.

You see, Mary Elizabeth stayed along with us so much durin’ the seasons he was away in New York, thet we got to know all her crotchets an’ quavers, an’ she ain’t got a mean one, neither.

But they’re there.  An’ they have to be dealt with, lovin’.  Fact is, th’ ain’t no other proper way to deal with nothin’, in my opinion.

We was ruther glad to find out some little twists in her disposition, wife an’ me was, ’cause ef we hadn’t discovered none, why we’d ‘a’ felt shore she had some in’ard deceit or somethin’.  No person can’t be perfec’, an’ when I see people always outwardly serene, I mistrust their insides.

But little Mary Elizabeth, why, she ain’t none too angelic to git a good healthy spell o’ the pouts once-t in a while, but ef she’s handled kind an’ tender, why, she’ll come thoo without havin’ to humble herself with apologies.

It depends largely upon how a pout is took, whether it’ll contrac’ itself into a hard knot an’ give trouble or thess loosen up into a good-natured smile, an’ the oftener they are let out that-a-way, the seldomer they’ll come.

Little Mary Elizabeth, why, she looks so purty when she pouts, now, that I’ve been tempted sometimes to pervoke her to it, thess to witness the new set o’ dimples she’ll turn out on short notice; but I ain’t never done it.  I know a dimple thet’s called into bein’ too often in youth is li’ble to lay the foundation of a wrinkle in old age.

But takin’ her right along stiddy, day in an’ day out, she’s got a good sunny disposition an’ is mighty lovin’ and kind.

An’ as to character and dependableness, why, she’s thess ez sound ez a bell.

In a heap o’ ways she nears up to us, sech, f’ instance, ez when she taken wife’s cook-receipt book to go by in experimentin’ with Sonny’s likes an’ dislikes.  ‘T ain’t every new-married wife thet’s willin’ to sample her husband’s tastes by his ma’s cook-books.

They seem to think they ’re too dictatorial.

But, of co’se, wife’s receipts was better ‘n most, an’ Mary Elizabeth, she knows that.