But I'll be blest if I can understand it in women." "Well, I've noticed that they have a particular likin' for the worthless over the hardworkin' sort," remarked old Adam, "an' when it comes to that, I've known a woman to git clear set against a man on o'count of nothin' bigger than a chaw of tobaccy." "It's the way of the sex," said Solomon Hatch.

"When I was courtin' my wife I was obleeged to promise her I'd give up the habit befo' she'd keep company with me." "An' you began agin, I low, after the ceremony was spoken." "To be sure--'twas a courtin' promise, not a real one." "It happened the same in my case, some sixty years or mo' ago," said old Adam.

"Thar was two of us arter Minnie--for the matter of that, it never entered my head to court her till I saw that Jacob Halloween--yo' grandpa, Jim--had begun to git soft on her.

It's safer to trust another man's jedgment than yo' own I said to myself, an' I started into the race.

Well, Jacob was the pious, churchgoin' sort that she liked--but he would chaw in season an' out of it--thar was some as said he chawed even when he was sleepin'-- an' a woman so out an' out with tobaccy you never set eyes on.