Of co’se we was even a little tenderer todes her, after that, than we had been befo’.

That was over five year ago, an’ th’ ain’t been a day sca’cely sence then but we’ve seen her, an’ in my jedgment they won’t be nothin’ lackin’ in her thet’s needful in a little wife—­not a thing.

Ef they’s anything in long acquaintance, they’ve certainly knowed one another all the time they’ve had.

Of co’se Mary Elizabeth, she ain’t to say got Sonny’s thoughts, exac’ly, where it comes to sech a thing ez book-writin’, but he says she’s a heap better educated ’n what he is.

She’s got all her tuition repo’ts du’in’ the whole time she attended school, an’ mostly all her precentages was up close onto the hund’eds.

Sonny never was no hand on earth to git good reports at school.

They was always so low down in figgurs thet he calls ’em his “misconduc’ slips.”

But they ain’t a one he’s ever got, takin’ ’em from the beginnin’ clean up to the day o’ his gradjuatin’, thet ain’t got some lovin’ remark inscribed acrost it from his teacher—­not a one.

Even them that wrastled with him most severe has writ him down friendly an’ kind.

An’ little Mary Elizabeth—­why, she’s took every last one of ’em an’ she’s feather-stitched ’em aroun’ the edges an’ sewed ’em up into a sort o’ little book, an’ tied a ribbin’ bow acrost it.  I don’t know whether she done it on account o’ the teacher’s remarks or not—­but she cert’n’y does prize that pamphlet.

She thinks so much of it thet I been advisin’ her to take out a fire insu’ance on it.

In a heap o’ ways she thess perzacly suits Sonny.  Lookin’ at it from one p’int o’ view, she’s a sort o’ dictionary to him.

Whenever Sonny finds hisself short of a date, f’ instance, or some unreasonable spellin’ ’ll bother ‘im, why, he’ll apply to her for it an’ she’ll hand it out to him, intac’.  I ain’t never knew her to fail.

You see, while Sonny’s thoughts is purty far-reachin’ in some ways, he’s received his education so sort o’ hit an’ miss thet the things he knows ain’t to say catalogued in his mind, an’ while he’ll know one fac’, maybe he won’t be able to recall another thet seems to belong hand in hand with it.  An’ that’s one reason why I say thet little Mary Elizabeth is thess the wife for him.

She may not bother about the whys an’ wherefores, but she’s got the statistics.

It’s always well, in a married couple, to have either one or the other statistical, so thet any needed fac’ can be had on demand.

Wife, she was a heap more gifted that-a-way ’n what I was, but of co’se hers wasn’t so much book statistics.

She could give the name an’ age of every cow an’ calf on the farm, an’ relate any circumstance thet has took place within her recollection or mine without the loss of a single date or any gain through imagination, either.

I don’t know but I think that’s a greater gif’ than the other, to be able to reproduce a event after a long time without sort o’ thess techin’ it up with a little exaggeration.