"There ain't any use sayin' I didn't, 'cause it's true; but us fellers only was doin' what we had a right."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Why, we've got a license from the s'lectmen to do all the chores 'round this neighborhood, an' had to pay a mighty big price for it. Do you s'pose we'll let any other fellers come in an' take the bread an' butter outer our mouths after we've scraped the cash together to pay the town tax for that kind of business?"
This statement was rather more than even Aunt Nancy could credit, and she said quite sharply,—
"William Dean, I won't have you standing there telling such wrong stories! You must think I'm a natural born idiot to listen."
"It's the truth all the same, and if Hunchie don't clear out he won't get along very easy. Good by, Aunt Nancy, I s'pose I'll see you at camp meetin', for all the old maids will be there."
Bill did not linger in the lane after this last remark, but went quickly out into the highway, leaving the little woman literally gasping with surprise and indignation.
"It's no disgrace to be an old maid," she said when it was once more possible for her to speak; "but I won't have an impudent boy like William Dean throwing it in my face as if it was something to be ashamed about."
"I wouldn't pay any 'tention to him," Jack replied consolingly. "You're nicer than any woman I ever saw, an' he'd be only too glad if you was as much of a friend to him as you are to me."
Aunt Nancy leaned over and kissed the little cripple on the forehead as she said in a low tone,—