Bevy Schnepp had endured as much as she could of insult to the denomination to which she belonged and to the preacher under whom she sat.
"Your Lutheran preachers have 'kein Saft und kein Kraft, kein Salz und kein Peffer' [no sap and no strength, no salt and no pepper]," she quoted. "They are me too leppish [insipid]. You must give these things a spiritual meaning. It meant Naomi and Ruth."
The governor smiled his approval at Bevy. "Right you are, Bevy!" Then he began to ask questions about his former acquaintances.
"What has come over John Hartman?"
"While he is so cross, you mean?" said Grandfather Gaumer. "I don't know what has come over him. It is a strange thing. He is so long queer that we forget he was ever any other way."
"Was he ugly this morning?" asked Grandmother Gaumer.
"He didn't ask us to come in and she didn't come to the door at all."
Bevy Schnepp, entering with laden hands, made sharp comment.
"She is afraid her things will get spoiled if the sun or the moon or the cold air strikes them. She is crazy for cleanness. She will get yet like fat Abby. Fat Abby once washed her hands fifteen times before breakfast, and if he (her husband) touched the coffee-pot even to push it back with his finger if it was boiling over, then she would make fresh."
"And do the Koehlers still live on the mountain?"