with you? You 'ain't said ten words sence you 've been a-settin' there.
I hope you 'ain't talked yoreself entirely out with Fred. It does beat
all how you an' that boy seem to grow thicker an' thicker every day. One
'ud think fur all the world that you told him all yore secrets, an' was
afeared he 'd tell 'em, by the way you stick by him; an' he 's jest as
bad about you. It 's amazin'."

"Freddie 's a wonderful good boy, an' he 's smart, too. They ain't none
of 'em a-goin' to throw dust in his eyes in the race of life."

"I 'm shore I 've tried to do my dooty by him the very best I could, an'
ef he does amount to anything in this world it 'll be through hard
labour an' mighty careful watchin'." Miss Hester gave a sigh that was
meant to be full of solemnity, but that positively reeked with
self-satisfaction.

"But as you say, 'Liphalet," she went on, "Fred ain't the worst boy in
the world, nor the dumbest neither, ef I do say it myself. I ain't
a-sayin', mind you, that he 's anything so great or wonderful; but I 've
got to thinkin' that there 's somethin' in him besides original sin, an'
I should feel that the Lord had been mighty favourin' to me ef I could
manage to draw it out. The fact of it is, 'Liphalet, I 've took a
notion in my head about Fred, an' I 'm a-goin' to tell you what it is. I
've decided to make a preacher out o' him."

"H'm--ah--well, Miss Hester, don't you think you 'd better let the Lord
do that?"

"Nonsense, 'Liphalet! you 'ain't got no insight at all. I believe in
people a-doin' their part an' not a-shovin' everything off on the Lord.
The shiftless don't want nothin' better than to say that they will leave
the Lord to take care o' things, an' then fold their arms an' set down
an' let things go to the devil. Remember, Brother Hodges, I don't mean
that in a perfane way. But then, because God made the sunlight an' the
rain, it ain't no sign that we should n't prune the vine."

Miss Hester's face had flushed up with the animation of her talk, and
her eyes were sparkling with excitement.

Eliphalet looked at her, and his heart leaped. He felt that the time had
come to speak.

"Miss Hester," he began, and the hat in his hand went round and round
nervously.

"'Liphalet, fur goodness' sake do lay yore hat on the table. You 'll
ruin the band of it, an' you make me as nervous as a cat."

He felt a little dampened after this, but he laid down the offending hat
and began again. "I 've been thinki