, so he did!

_Mrs. Barney._--Why, did he marry a Hooer?

_Mrs. Shad._--Why, to be sure he did.--You knew Mournin'.

_Mrs. Barney._--Oh, mighty well; but I'd forgot that brother Smith
married her. I really thought he married a Ramsbottom.

_Mrs. Reed._--Oh no, bless your soul, honey, he married Mournin'.

_Mrs. Barney._--Well, the law me, I'm clear beat!

_Mrs. Shad._--Oh, it's so, you may be sure it is.

_Mrs. Barney._--Emph, emph, emph, emph! And brother Smith married
Mournin' Hooer! Well, I'm clear put out! Seems to me I'm gettin'
mighty forgetful somehow.

_Mrs. Shad._--Oh yes, he married Mournin', and I saw her when she
joined society.

_Mrs. Barney._--Why, you don't tell me so!

_Mrs. Shad._--Oh, it's the truth. She didn't join till after she was
married, and the church took on mightily about his marrying one out of
society. But after she joined, they all got satisfied.

_Mrs. Reed._--Why, la! me, the seven stars is 'way over here!

_Mrs. Barney._--Well, let's light our pipes, and take a short smoke,
and go to bed. How did you come on raisin' chickens this year, Mis'
Shad?

_Mrs. Shad._--La messy, honey! I have had mighty bad luck. I had the
prettiest pa'sel you most ever seed, till the varment took to killin'
'em.

_Mrs. Reed and Mrs. Barney._--The varment!!

_Mrs. Shad._--Oh, dear, yes. The hawk catched a powerful sight of
them; and then the varment took to 'em, and nat'ly took 'em fore and
aft, bodily, till they left most none at all hardly. Sucky counted 'em
up t'other day, and there warn't but thirty-nine, she said, countin'
in the old speckle hen's chickens that jist come off her nest.

_Mrs. Reed and Mrs. Barney._--Humph--h--h!

_Mrs. Reed._--Well, I've had bad luck, too. Billy's hound-dogs broke
up most all my nests.

_Mrs. Barney._--Well, so they did me, Mis' Reed. I always did despise
a hound-dog upon the face of yea'th.

_Mrs. Reed._--Oh, they are the bawllinest, squallinest, thievishest
things ever was about one; but Billy will have 'em, and I think in my
soul his old Troup's the beat of all creaters I ever seed in all my
born days a-suckin' o' hen's eggs. He's clean most broke me up
entirely.

_Mrs. Shad._--The lackaday!

_Mrs. Reed._--And them that was hatched out, some took to takin' the
gaps, and some the pip, and one ailment or other, till they most all
died. . . .

_Mrs. Barney._--I reckon they must have eat something didn't agree
with them.

_Mrs. Reed._--No, they