"Well, I'd like to know what fun you think there is in settin' up with a girl that won't leave a feller kiss her or hug her!"
"I'm sure I don't know what you do see in it, Absalom. I told you not to come."
"If I ain't to hold your hand or kiss yon, what are we to do to pass the time?" he reasoned.
"I'll tell you, Absalom. Let me read to you. Then we wouldn't be wasting the evening."
"I ain't much fur readin'. I ain't like Teacher." He frowned and looked at her darkly. "I've took notice how much fur books you are that way. Last Sunday night, too, you sayed, 'Let me read somepin to you.' Mebbe you and Teacher will be settin' up readin' together. And mebbe the Doc wasn't just jokin' when he sayed Teacher might cut me out!"
"Please, Absalom," Tillie implored him, "don't talk so loud!"
"I don't care! I hope he hears me sayin' that if he ever comes tryin' to get my girl off me, I 'll get pop to have him put off his job!"
"None of you know what you are talking about," Tillie indignantly whispered. "You can't understand. The teacher is a man that wouldn't any more keep company with one of us country girls than you would keep company, Absalom, with a gipsy. He's ABOVE us!"
"Well, I guess if you're good enough fur me, Tillie Getz, you're good enough fur anybody else—leastways fur a man that gets his job off the wotes of your pop and mine!"
"The teacher is a—a gentleman, Absalom."