It is true he 'kisses my hand' in his speech, even when it is thickest, and offers his back to me for a horse-block, but I think I prefer the sober and honest familiarity of even that Pike County landlord who is satisfied to say, 'Jump, girl, and I'll ketch ye!'" "I hope you didn't change your manner to either of them for that," said Mrs.Hale with a faint sigh.

"John wants to be good friends with them, and they are behaving quite decently lately, considering that they can't speak a grammatical sentence nor know the use of a fork." "And now the man puts on gloves and a tall hat to come here on Sundays, and the woman won't call until you've called first," retorted Kate; "perhaps you call that improvement.

The fact is, Josephine," continued the young girl, folding her arms demurely, "we might as well admit it at once--these people don't like us." "That's impossible!" said Mrs.Hale, with sublime simplicity.

"You don't like them, you mean." "I like them better than you do, Josie, and that's the reason why I feel it and YOU don't." She checked herself, and after a pause resumed in a lighter tone: "No; I sha'n't go to the station; I'll commune with nature to-day, and won't 'take any humanity in mine, thank you,' as Bill the driver says.

Adios." "I wish Kate would not use that dreadful slang, even in jest," said Mrs.Scott, in her rocking-chair at the French window, when Josephine reentered the parlor as her sister walked briskly away.