"Tell me!"
"I was scutching flax."
"What is that?"
"Why, don't you know? — didn't you see me beating flax in the barn the other day? — beating it upon a board, with a bat? — that was scutching."
"That day when mamma said, — mamma said, you were working too hard?"
"I think it is very likely."
"I thought we were done dressing flax?" remarked Asahel.
"We! — well, I suppose you have, for this season."
"Well, ain't you done dressing flax?"
"No, sir."