It's sartain sure, however, that they fill a good deal mo' of yo' thought when they ain't around than when they are.

Why, look at William, now--the first time he axed me to marry him, I kept sayin' 'you're still slue-footed an' slack-kneed an' addle-headed an' I'll marry you whether or no.' Twenty years may not change a man for the better, but it does a powerful lot toward persuadin' a woman to put up with the worst!" "Well, best or worst, I've seen enough of marriage, Mrs.Bottom, to know that I shouldn't like it." "I ain't denyin' it might be improved on without hurtin' it--but a single woman's a terrible lonesome body, Molly." "I'm not lonely, while I have grandfather." "He's old an' he ain't got many years ahead of him." "If I lose him I'll go to Applegate and trim hats for a living." "It's a shame, Molly, with the po' miller splittin' his heart over you." "He'll mend it.

They're like that, all of them." "But Mr.Mullen?
Ain't he different now, bein' a parson ?" "No, he's just the same, and besides he'd always think he'd stooped to marry me." "Then take Jim Halloween.

With three good able-bodied lovers at yo' beck an' call, it's a downright shame to die an old maid just from pure contrariness.

It's better arter all, to eat dough that don't rise than to go hungry." A step sounded on the platform outside and a lank, good-looking countryman glanced cautiously in through the crack in the door.
Observing Molly, he spat a wad of tobacco over the hitching rail by the steps, and stopped to smooth his straw-coloured hair with the palm of his hand before crossing the threshold.
"Thar's Jim Halloween now jest as we were speakin' of him," whispered Betsey Bottom, with a nudge at Molly's shoulder.
"Well, if that don't beat all," drawled the young man, in an embarrassed rapture, as he entered.