“You little liar, what do you mean by that story of yours?”
I thought that licking was about due then. But whilst all eyes were turned on me and Elmira, there came a voice from the cistern. It was Hank's voice, but it sounded queer and hollow, and it said:
“Tom Alexander, is that you?”
Some of the women screamed, for they thought it was Hank's ghost. But Mis' Primrose says: “What would a ghost be doing in a cistern?”
Tom Alexander laughed and yelled down into the cistern: “What in blazes you want to jump in there for, Hank?”
“You darned ijut!” said Hank, “you quit mocking me and get a ladder, and when I get out'n here I'll learn you to ask me what I wanted to jump in here for!”
“You never saw the day you could do it,” says Tom Alexander, meaning the day Hank could lick him. “And if you feel that way about it you can stay down there, for all of me. I guess a little water won't hurt you any, for a change.” And he left the house.
“Elmira,” sings out Hank, mad and bossy, “you go get me a ladder!”
But Elmira, her temper rose up, too, all of a sudden.
“Don't you dare order me around like I was the dirt under your feet, Hennery Walters,” she says.