"
"It ain't easy to bear, I know, but having tried my own way and made
a dreadful mess on 't, I concluded that the Lord knows what's best
for us, and things go better when He manages than when we go
scratchin' round and can't wait."
"Tried your own way? How do you mean?" asked Christie, curiously;
for she liked to hear her hostess talk, and found something besides
amusement in the conversation, which seemed to possess a fresh
country flavor as well as country phrases.
Mrs. Wilkins smiled all over her plump face, as if she liked to tell
her experience, and having hunched sleepy little Andy more
comfortably into her lap, and given a preparatory hem or two, she
began with great good-will.
"It happened a number a years ago and ain't much of a story any way.
But you're welcome to it, as some of it is rather humorsome, the
laugh may do you good ef the story don't. We was livin' down to the
east'ard at the time. It was a real pretty place; the house stood
under a couple of maples and a gret brook come foamin' down the
rayvine and away through the medders to the river. Dear sakes, seems
as ef I see it now, jest as I used to settin' on the doorsteps with
the lay-locks all in blow, the squirrels jabberin' on the wall, and
the saw-mill screekin' way off by the dam.
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