Miss Clegg paused briefly, and her eyes became particularly wide open.  Mrs. Lathrop was all attention.

“Mrs. Lathrop, you ain’t lived next to me ‘n’ known me in ‘n’ out ‘n’ hind ‘n’ front all these years not to know ’t I ’m pretty sharp.  I ain’t been cheated mor’ ’n twice ’n my life, ‘n’ one o’ them times was n’t my fault, for it was printed on the band ’t it would wash.  Such bein’ the case, ‘n’ takin’ the minister into consideration, I do consider ’t no man would ‘a’ supposed ‘t he could get the better o’ me.  It’s a sad thing to have to own to, ‘n’ if I was anybody else in kingdom come I ’d never own to it till I got there; but my way is to live open ‘n’ aboveboard, ‘n’ so to my shame be ’t told ’t the minister—­with all ’t he’s got eight children ‘n’ I ain’t even married—­is certainly as sharp as me.  Last night when I see him comin’ up the walk I never ’d ‘a’ believed ’s he c’d get away again so easy, but it just goes to show what a world o’ deceit this is, ‘n’ seein’ ’s I have father to clean from his windows aroun’ to-day, I ’ll ask you to excuse me ‘f I don’t draw the subjeck out none, but jus’ remark flat ‘n’ plain ‘t there ain’t no chance o’ my ever marryin’ the minister.  You may consider that a pretty strong statement, Mrs. Lathrop, ‘n’ I don’t say myself but ’t with any other man there might be a hereafter, but it was me ‘n’ not anybody else as see his face last night, ‘n’ seein’ his face ‘n’ bein’ a woman o’ more brains ’n falls to the lot of yourself ‘n’ the majority, I may just as well say once for all that, ’s far ’s the minister’s concerned, I sh’ll never be married to him.”

“What did he—­” began Mrs. Lathrop.

“All ’t was necessary ‘n’ more too.  He did n’t give me hardly time to state ’t I was single afore he come out strong ’t we ’d both better stay so.  I spoke right out to his face then, ‘n’ told him ’t my shingles was new last year ‘n’ it was a open question whether his ’d ever be, but he piped up f’r all the world like some o’ the talkin’ was his to do, ‘n’ said ’t he had a cistern ‘n’ I ’d only got a sunk hogshead under the spout.  I did n’t see no way to denyin’ that, but I went right on ‘n’ asked him ’f he could in his conscience deny ’t them eight children stood in vital need of a good mother, ‘n’ he spoke up ’s quick ’s scat ‘n’ said ’t no child stood in absolute vital need of a mother after it was born.  ‘N’ then he branched out ‘n’ give me to understand ’t he had a wife till them eight children all got themselves launched ‘n’ ‘t it was n’t his fault her dyin’ o’ Rachel Rebecca.  When he said ‘dyin’,’ I broke in ‘n’ said ’t it was Bible-true ’s there was ’s good fish in the sea ’s ever was caught out of it, ‘n’ he was impolite enough to interrupt ‘n’ tell me to my face ’Yes, but when a man had been caught once he was n’t easy caught again.’  I will own ’t I was more ’n put out ‘t that, for o’ course when I said fish I meant his wife ‘n’ me, but when he pretended