You were a beauty in yo' day, though some folks use to think that that little fair thing, Mary Hilliard, was better lookin'.
To me 'twas like settin' a dairy maid beside a queen." "Even my husband thought Mary Hilliard, was prettier," said Sarah, and her tone showed that this tribute to her youthful vanity had touched her heart.
"Well, I never did.

You were al'ays too good for me an' I never begrudged you to Abner.

He was a better man." For an instant she looked at him steadily, while living honesty struggled in her bosom against loyalty to the dead.
"No, Reuben, Abner was not a better man," she said presently, as if the words were thrust out of her by a chastening conscience.

"My pride kept me up after I had married him; but he was born shiftless an' he died shiftless.

He never did a day's work in his life that I didn't drive him to.