.
Have ye ever noticed how some 's all'as shiftin' a chaw o' tobakker?
Neow when I takes a chaw I wants ter let her lay off one side, and
compeound with her own feelin's when she gits ready to melt away.
Forced-to-go never gits far, ye know.

"Some 's that way," he resumed; "and some 's sarssy."

I looked up incredulously, but his fostering, abstracted smile was as
serene as ever.

"Vesty, neow, stood down there in the lane this mornin', and sarssed me
for a good ten minits; sarssed me abeout not havin' no nails, and
sarssed me abeout settin' on the log a spall; stood there and sarssed
and charffed."

"She is some relative--some grandniece of yours, Captain Leezur?"

"No, oh no. Vesty and me 's only jest mates; but we charff and sarss
each other 'tell the ceows come home."

I thought of the tall girl with the holy eyelids and the brave
resistance against mirth, and in spite of my predilection for Captain
Leezur, his words seemed to me like sacrilege.

"I saw her, Sunday," I said.

"Wal, thar' neow! Vesty 's jest as pious lookin', Sundays, as Pharo's
tew-seated kerridge. I tell her, I'm dreadful glad for her sake that
there ain't but one Sunday tew a week, she couldn't hold out no longer.
Still, she's vary partickeler, Vesty is, and she 's good for taking
keer o' folks. Elder Birds'll says 't ef Vesty Kirtland ain't come
under 'tonin' grace, then 'tonin' grace is mighty skeerce to the Basin."

"She is beautiful," I said.

"Oh, I don't know 'beout that. Vesty 's a little more hullsome lookin'
sometimes 'long in the winter, when she gits bleached out and poored
away a bit."

"People seem to depend on her a great deal."

"Sartin they dew. Wal, Vesty 's gittin' on. She 's nineteen year old.
She can row a boat, or dew a washin', or help in a deliverunce case,
and she 's r'al handy and comfortin' in death-damps."

"All that! Vesty--and nineteen!" I think I sighed.

"Ye mustn't let her kile herself reound ye," said Captain Leezur.

I looked up in dismay. Had he not seen my weakness of body, and my
birth-scarred face?

No, apparently he had not; his benign blessed face uplifted, and his
voice so glad:

"Ye know how 'tis with women folks; they don't give no warnin', but
first ye know they're kilin' themselves all reound and reound yer
h'art-strings. They don't know what it 's for and ye don't know what
it 's for; but take a young man like you, and ef ye ain't keerful,
Vesty'll jest as sartin git