No use for ramshackle farmin' they'd have, an' no use for me, nuther, with their top boots an' stovepipe hats." Mike had been discharged from the Bannisters' service because of his unwillingness to pay any attention to his personal appearance.
"If that durned Miss Panney," he continued, "keeps on tellin' that to the people, things will be a cussed sight worse than me a livin' here without decent vittles, an' Phoebe a boardin' that minister that ain't paid no board yit.

Blast them all, I say." And with that he lifted up his axe and brought it down on the end of the upturned log with such force that it split into two jagged portions..