"Thet jest fits my case."
"The motto was given me by a very good girl in New York, who was dying of consumption. They were the last words she spoke, and they were engraved on her tombstone. I will tell you the whole story about her some time."
"I should like to hear it, fust rate; but I reckon we've got sunthin' else to do jest now. I hope we shall hev sunthin' like a house for you to sleep in to-night."
"Hoping alone will not build the house, Ethan; besides, we don't hope much for that which we are not willing to work for."
"I know thet; and I'm go'n to work on the house right away now," replied Ethan, as he rose from the ground, and took his shovel.
"I will help you, for I hope we shall have a house to keep us out of the wet if it should happen to rain."
"You are nothin' but a gal," said Ethan, rather contemptuously.
"But I can help you. How shall you build a house?"
"Well, I don't quite know."
"I can help you think, if nothing more, Ethan."