n' 'round with them minxes in Mis'
Shoolbred's. What's in that box?' she says, with her face a-blazin'.

"'Now, Lizy,' I says, 'I wa'n't there ten minutes if I was that, an' I
ben buyin' you a bunnit.'

"'_You--ben--buyin'--me--a--bunnit_?' she says, stifnin' up stiffer 'n a
stake.

"'Yes,' I says, 'I heard you say somethin' 'bout a spring bunnit, an' I
thought, seein' how economicle you was, that I'd buy you a nicer one 'n
mebbe you'd feel like yourself. I thought it would please ye,' I says,
tryin' to rub her the right way.

"'Let me see it,' she says, in a voice dryer 'n a lime-burner's hat,
pressin' her lips together an' reachin' out fer the box. Wa'al, sir, she
snapped the string with a jerk an' sent the cover skimmin' across the
room, an' then, as she hauled the parcel out of the box, she got up onto
her feet. Then she tore the paper off on't an' looked at it a minute,
an' then took it 'tween her thumb an' finger, like you hold up a dead
rat by the tail, an' held it off at the end of her reach, an' looked it
all over, with her face gettin' even redder if it could. Fin'ly she
says, in a voice 'tween a whisper 'n a choke:

"'What'd you pay fer the thing?'

"'Fifteen dollars,' I says.

"'Fifteen _dollars_?' she says.

"'Yes,' I says, 'don't ye like it?' Wa'al," said David, "she never said
a word. She drawed in her arm an' took holt of the bunnit with her left
hand, an' fust she pulled off one thing an' dropped it on the floor, fur
off as she c'd reach, an' then another, an' then another, an' then, by
gum! she went at it with both hands jest as fast as she could work 'em,
an' in less time 'n I'm tellin' it to ye she picked the thing cleaner 'n
any chicken you ever see, an' when she got down to the carkis she
squeezed it up between her two hands, give it a wring an' a twist like
it was a wet dish towel, an' flung it slap in my face. Then she made a
half turn, throwin' back her head an' grabbin' into her hair, an' give
the awfullest screechin' laugh--one screech after another that you c'd
'a' heard a mile--an' then throwed herself face down on the bed,
screamin' an' kickin'. Wa'al, sir, if I wa'n't at my wits' end, you c'n
have my watch an' chain.

"She wouldn't let me touch her no way, but, as luck had it, it was one
o' the times when we had a hired girl, an' hearin' the noise she come
gallopin' up the stairs. She wa'n't a young girl, an' she had a face
humbly 'nough to keep her awake nights, but she had som