Says I, "Come, Josiah Allen, we're goin' to have dinner right away, for we are afraid it will rain."
"Oh, wal," says he, "a little rain, more or less, hain't a goin' to hinder a man from meditatin'."
I was wore out, and says I: "Do you stop meditatin' this minute, Josiah Allen."
Says he: "I won't stop, Samantha. I let you have your way a good deal of the time; but when I take it into my head to meditate, you hain't a goin' to break it up."
Says I: "Josiah Allen, come to dinner."
"Oh, I hain't hungry," says he. "The table will probably be full. I had jest as leves wait."
"Table full!" says I. "You know jest as well as I do that we are eatin' on the ground. Do you come and eat your dinner this minute."
"Yes, do come," says Miss Bobbet.
"Oh," says he, with that ghastly smile, a pretendin' to joke; "I have got plenty to eat here, I can eat muskeeters."
The air was black with 'em; I couldn't deny it.