ers."

"Yes; Mr. Rogers, Hirum Gilcrest an' John Trabue air plum daft about
it. Preachah Stone said last time he preached fur us thet we sartainly
air progressin', an' I'm glad on it, too, though I never hed edvantiges
myse'f. When I wuz a little gal down in Car'liny, I went to school long
'nough to l'arn my a-b-c's. Then the redskins broke up the school, an'
we didn't hev no more tell I wuz a big gal an' 'shamed to go an' l'arn
my a-b abs 'long with the little shavers. When I wuz 'bout sixteen,
'long comes Mr. Rogers, an' I didn't keer nothin' more 'bout school.
You know, when a gal gits marryin' in her haid, thar ain't no room left
in it fur book-l'arnin'. Mason he wuz a sprightly, well-sot-up young
fellah, an' soon's I laid eyes on him (it wuz at a house-raisin'
party), I wuz ready to say 'snip' ez soon ez he'd say 'snap.' Folks
them days didn't fool 'way much time a-courtin'. A man'd see a likely
gal, an' soon's he'd got a piece o' ground cl'ared an' a cabin raised,
they'd be ready to splice. So Mason an' me wuz married, an' moved up to
Kaintuck. Thet fust wintah, while we wuz a-livin' in the fort, Mason he
broke his laig out huntin', an' while he wuz laid up a spaill, he
l'arned me to read an' write an' ciphah some. I reckon ef it hadn't 'a'
been fur thet crippled laig o' his'n, I'd nevah l'arned even thet
much." She dropped her work for a moment as she reviewed this incident
of her early married life.

"Doubtless, madam, you underrate your stock of learning. I dare say you
made rapid progress," said Dudley, politely.

"Oh, I l'arned the readin' an' writin' all right, but, la! I nevah hed
no haid fur figgahs. I jogged 'long purty brisk with the addin' an'
subtractin', but them multiplyin' tables floored me. To this day I
allus staggers at the nines, an' ef you wuz to ax me how much wuz seven
times nine, I'd haf to count on my fingahs before I could tell whuthah
it made forty-eight or fifty-seven--though I know it's one or tuthah.
But times is changed, an' I want my childurn edicated in all the
accompaniments."

"How many children have you?"

"Six livin'. We lost our fust two. Henry is goin' on seventeen, an' he
jes' natch'ally teks to books--knows more'n his pap now, I reckon. Why,
he kin figgah ez fast ez I kin ravel out a piece o' knittin', an' I
nevah in my borned days heard nobody, 'cept mayby Preachah Stone, whut
could read lak him. He kin run 'long ovah them big names in the papah
an' them generalgies i