Eld. P. Widder, I want to speak with you. (She goes back and they sit down on one of the benches.)
Eld. P. I hain’t seen you but once before since I was a widower. It was a awful blow to me; a hard blow. (Smiting his breast.)
Wid. D. I feel to sympathize with you; I know how I felt when I lost Doodle.
Peedick. Yes; I tell you Widder. I have seen trouble lately. A spell ago I lost the best cow I had; then I lost a new umbrella, and a whale-bone whip, and now my wife is dead. I tell you it cuts me right down; it makes me feel poor. You wasn’t acquainted with the corpse, I believe.
Wid. D. No, but I have heard her well spoke of.
Peedick. Yes, she was a lovely woman. My heartstrings was wrapped completely around her. Not a pair of pantaloons have I hired made sense we was both married to each other, nor a vest. I tell you it was hard to lose her, dretful hard. I never realized how much I loved that woman till I see I must give her up, and hire a girl at 2 dollars a week—and they waste more than their necks are worth. I tell you my heart is full of tender memories of that woman, when I think how she would get up and build fires in the winter—
Wid. D. That is what I always did for my Doodle. He would be a dreamin’ how pretty I was, and how much he loved me, and he’d want to go to sleep agin and dream it over. So I would get up and split the kindlin’ wood and build the fire, and get breakfast, so’s to let him lay and dream about me. I love to build fires.
Peedick. Do you love to build fires, Widder? I wish you had been acquainted with the corpse; I believe you would have loved each other like sisters.
Wid. D. You must chirk up Elder Peedick, you must look forward to happier days.
Peedick. I know there is another spear and I try to hang my hopes up on it, a spear where hired girls are unknown and partings are no more.