"Oh, I don't mind ef I do set down. I'm that tuckered out with scrubbin' and washin' an' cookin', I'm afeared I can't dance till mornin'."
As she talked, she fanned herself with her red cotton handkerchief.
"You enjoy dancing, don't you, Mrs. Murphy?" asked the teacher, with apparent interest.
"Enjoy dancin'? I should say I did!" She suddenly assumed an air of great importance. "Back East where I was riz, I went ter all the barn raisin's, an' was accounted the best dancer in the county."
She showed sudden interest in the fiddler, and tapped time to the music with her foot.
"Then I joined the Mormons. When I lived in Utah, there was plenty o' dancin', I can tell you."
"You are from New York, Mrs. Murphy, I think you said."
"Yep," complacently. "I was riz in York State, near Syrycuse. My folks was way up, my folks was. Why, my aunt's husband's sister's husband kep' a confectony, an' lived on Lexity Street, York City. She were rich, she were,—an' dressed! My landy! How she dressed! Always latest style! Ye didn't know her, I s'pose. Miz Josiah Common was her name, lived at 650 somethin' Lexity Street. Wisht you'd a knowed her."
Here she mopped her face again.
It was not often that Mrs. Murphy found herself in society, and in society where she wished to make an impression. Her voice rose higher and shriller.