Aunt S. If I hadn't—
Uncle R. Come, come, woman, don't keep his worship in expectation, like a watch-dog. A story, and a good one; for you could talk if you were under water.
Aunt S. Would your worship like to hear about the animas?
Don F. Without delay. Let us hear about the animas.
Aunt S. There was once a poor woman who had a niece that she brought up as straight as a bolt. The girl was a good girl, but very timid and bashful. The dread of what might become of this child, if she should be taken away, was the poor old woman's greatest anxiety. Therefore, she prayed to God, night and day, to send her niece a kind husband.
The aunt did errands for the house of a gossip of hers that kept boarders. Among the guests of this house was a great nabob, who condescended to say that he would marry if he could find a girl modest, industrious, and clever. You may be sure that the old woman's ear was wide open. A few days afterwards, she told the nabob that he would find what he was looking for in her niece, who was a treasure, a grain of gold, and so clever that she painted even the birds of the air. The gentleman said that he would like to know her, and would go to see her the next day. The old woman ran home so fast that she never saw the path, and told her niece to tidy up the house, and to comb her hair, and dress herself, the next morning, with great care, for they were going to have company.
When the gentleman came, the next day, he asked the girl if she knew how to spin.
"Spin, is it?" answered the aunt.
"She takes the hanks down like glasses of water."
"What have you done, madam?" cried the niece when the gentleman had gone, after giving her three hanks of flax to spin for him. "What have you done? And I don't know how to spin!"