"Oh, how tormentin' a man kin be when he tries."
"Oh, how tormentin' a woman kin be when she don't try."
"Did anybody ever hear the like? Jasper, don't you see how much Lou is a thinkin' of him? Air you so blind that you can't see that? An' you know that the app'intment of Peters mout spile it all."
The old man shrugged. "Yes, mout spile it all fur Peters. Let me tell you suthin'. I ain't a stairrin' round to see how much one pusson thinks of another, an' I don't know how much she keers fur that young feller, but I do know that she is worthy of any man that ever trod shoe luther. We give her all the freedom a girl wants, an' that man ain't a livin' that could turn that freedom into shame. If she falls in love with him, she will love him like a Starbuck—with all her soul. An' if he don't love her, she'll be silent like a Starbuck. One day when we was a goin' down the creek in canoe you saw a fish come up an' strike at the paddle. Margaret, that was a Starbuck among fish."
There came a loud cry of "halloa," and Jasper went to the window.
"Helloa yo'se'f."
"My wagon's stalled down here," a man shouted, "and I'd like for you to fetch your steers and give me a lift up the hill."
"What air you loaded with?"
"Hoop poles."
"All right, I'll send a nigger down an'—" Just then he caught sight of Kintchin. "Here, you scoundrel, I thought I told you to haul a load of corn over to Spencer's."