reiterated.
"S'pose them two old skinamulinks was to go an' have children?"

"Polly, you make me blush," protested her brother. "Hain't you got no
respect fer the holy institution of matrimuny?--and--at cet'ry?" he
added, wiping his whole face with his napkin.

"Much as you hev, I reckon," she retorted. "Of all the amazin' things in
this world, the amazinist to me is the kind of people that gits married
to each other in gen'ral; but this here performence beats ev'rything
holler."

"Amri give a very good reason for't," said David with an air of
conviction, and then he broke into a laugh.

"Ef you got anythin' to tell, tell it," said Mrs. Bixbee impatiently.

"Wa'al," said David, taking the last of his pudding into his mouth, "if
you insist on't, painful as 't is. I heard Dick Larrabee tellin' 'bout
it. Amri told Dick day before yestiday that he was thinkin' of gettin'
married, an' ast him to go along with him to Parson White's an' be a
witniss, an' I reckon a kind of moral support. When it comes to moral
supportin'," remarked David in passing, "Dick's as good 's a
professional, an' he'd go an' see his gran'mother hung sooner 'n miss
anythin', an' never let his cigar go out durin' the performence. Dick
said he congratilated Am on his choice, an' said he reckoned they'd be
putty ekally yoked together, if nothin' else."

Here David leaned over toward Aunt Polly and said, protestingly, "Don't
gi' me but jest a teasp'nful o' that ice cream. I'm so full now 't I
can't hardly reach the table." He took a taste of the cream and resumed:
"I can't give it jest as Dick did," he went on, "but this is about the
gist on't. Him, an' Lize, an' Am went to Parson White's about half after
seven o'clock an' was showed into the parler, an' in a minute he come
in, an' after sayin' 'Good evenin'' all 'round, he says, 'Well, what c'n
I do for ye?' lookin' at Am an' Lize, an' then at Dick.

"'Wa'al,' says Am, 'me an' Mis' Annis here has ben thinkin' fer some
time as how we'd ought to git married.'

"'_Ought_ to git married?' says Parson White, scowlin' fust at one an'
then at t'other.

"'Wa'al,' says Am, givin' a kind o' shuffle with his feet, 'I didn't
mean _ortter_ exac'ly, but jest as _well_--kinder comp'ny,' he says. 'We
hain't neither on us got nobody, an' we thought we might 's well.'

"'What have you got to git married on?' says the dominie after a minute.
'Anythin'?' he says.

"'Wa'al,' says Am, droppin' his head sideways an