"Jes' so," observed her brother; "I've gen'ally noticed that folks who was of your way o' thinkin' never made no mistakes, an' 'Lizer 's a very consistent believer;" whereupon he laughed in a way to arouse both Mrs. Bixbee's curiosity and suspicion.
"I don't see anythin' in that to laugh at," she declared.
"He, he, he, he!" chuckled David.
"Wa'al, you may 's well tell it one time 's another. That's the way," she said, turning to John with a smile trembling on her lips, "'t he picks at me the hull time."
"I've noticed it," said John. "It's shameful."
"I do it hully fer her good," asserted David with a grin. "If it wa'n't fer me she'd git in time as narrer as them seven-day Babtists over to Peeble—they call 'em the 'narrer Babtists.' You've heard on 'em, hain't you, Polly?"
"No," she said, without looking up from her plate, "I never heard on 'em, an' I don't much believe you ever did neither."
"What!" exclaimed David, "You lived here goin' on seventy year an' never heard on 'em?"
"David Harum!" she cried, "I ain't within ten year——"
"Hold on," he protested, "don't throw that teacup. I didn't say you was, I only said you was goin' on—an' about them people over to Peeble, they've got the name of the 'narrer Babtists' because they're so narrer in their views that fourteen on 'em c'n sit, side an' side, in a buggy." This astonishing statement elicited a laugh even from Aunt Polly, but presently she said: