And I sez, “For the land’s sake! Why?”
“Wall,” sez he, a lookin’ real candid and sincere as he said it, “the fact is, you know the corpse and I never agreed with each other, and everybody knows it; and I don’t want to act as if I wuz a mournin’ too much. I hate deceit,” sez he.
“Wall,” sez I, “if that is how you feel you can take the coat in welcome.”
And Josiah sez, “Yes, of course you can have it.”
And Eben took off his glossy new black overcoat and put on Josiah’s old shabby brown one and sot off. And I don’t know how he and his wife settled it, and I don’t much care.
Wall, if you’ll believe it, Eben hadn’t much more’n got into his buggy at the gate when Cousin John Richard began agin, took up his remarks jest where he had laid ’em down. I don’t spoze he sensed Eben’s comin’ in hardly any.
I spoze it wuz some as if a fly should light on the nose of a Fourth of July oritor, it would be brushed off without noticin’ it, and the oration would go right on.
Sez John Richard, “All the religion and education in the world cannot make the two races unite harmoniously and become one people, with kindred tastes and united hearts and interests.”
Sez I agin, speakin’ mechanically, “You think the foot is too big for the shoe?”