"Did you ever do any stunts to see who you would marry?" she asked her grandmother.
"My sister and I used to hang horseshoes over the door, and the first one that passed under them was supposed to be the one we was going to marry."
"Did somebody pass under?"
"We did it a good many times. I remember one time we did it, and the first one that passed under was to be my husband, and the second was to be Alviry's. The first one turned out to be young Pork Joe, who was one o' the unlikeliest boys that ever put his waistcoat on hind-side before; he never would dress himself proper. I was pretty well discouraged at the idea of young Pork Joe for a husband, but Alviry she made me hang around watching for her beau to turn up, and lo and behold the very next person to set foot over that threshold was your grandfather. I thought I felt bad enough before, but when I saw John Swift's shoulders thrusting themselves through that door frame, I just bolted off upstairs and had a good cry. Alviry she wasn't pleased, either. She had her eye on Martin Nickerson at the time."
"Maybe it was the second one you were to marry, and the first didn't count. Who was young Pork Joe?"
"Old Pork Joe's son. He used to keep pigs to sell, and so they finally got calling him that."
"The way they call the plumber Pump Peter. I think Cape Cod is the funniest place."
"It ain't so different from other places."
"In other places you don't associate so much with—the baker and the butcher."
"Maybe they ain't so well worth associating with."