"Well, Mrs. Lathrop, you can see without any tryin' that that man
suffered. I pretty near stopped 'n' burnt jus' to listen to him. He says
as he sit there plum beside hisself 'n' most cried from not knowin' what
under Heaven's name to do. He says he was placed most awful with winter
starin' him stark in the face 'n' no warm place to stay. He says nobody
knows how it feels to feel like he was forced to feel,--'nless they've
been expectin' to be married 'n' then been discharged themselves
instead. He says he looked about most doleful 'n' wished he was dead or
anythin' that's warm, 'n' then he got down from the stack 'n' set on a
old wagon tongue 'n' jus' tried to figger on if there was n't no way as
he could think up as would make Tilly have him. He says the bitter part
was to reflect as he had to work to make Tilly have him, when it 'd
really ought by all rights to have been the other way. He says to think
o' that nose 'n' then him obliged to work 'n' slave to get hold of it!"
"I--" began Mrs. Lathrop.
"Well, he see it different," said Susan; "he says,--'n' I can't in
reason see how any one as knows as little as you, Mrs. Lathrop, can deny
him,--he says as no one as gets married easy at the end of courtin' can
possibly figger on the difficulties of gettin' married hard. He says it
was jus' beyond belief the way he felt as he set there reflectin' on his
wasted summer 'n' Tilly flippin' aroun' all unconcerned over him leavin'
in the end. He says his blood begun to slowly begin to boil as he set
there thinkin', 'n' in the end he jus' up an' hit the wagon-tongue with
his fist 'n' said 'By Jinks!' 'n' he says when he says 'By Jinks,' it
_is_ the end, 'n' don't you forget it.
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