as Hiram is being everlastin'ly downed.
She says as we all remember that bright an' happy weddin' day[B] an' how
she downed her own feelin's an' waved rice after 'em just like
everybody else when they started off weddin'-trippin', each with their
own bag in his own hand. But, oh, she says, the way they come back! She
says they come back with Hiram carryin' both bags, an' her heart sunk
when she see 'em for she says when she was married it was _her_ as come
home carryin' both bags an' she says it's one of the saddest straws as
ever blows a bride out. She says she never expected much of her marriage
'cause she was engaged on a April Fool's Day in Leap Year, an' he give
her an imitation opal for a ring, but she says Hiram give Lucy a real
green emerald with a 18 an' a K inside it an' he looked to be happy even
with his mother's tears mildewin' his pillow every night that whole
summer. She says no one will ever know how hard she did try to get sense
into Hiram that summer afore it was too late. She says she used to sit
up in tears an' wait for him to come home from seein' Lucy, an' weep on
his neck with her arms tight round him for two or three hours
afterwards every night, but she says he never used to appreciate it. An'
she says what he needed to marry for, anyway, Heaven only knows, with
his whole life laid pleasantly out to suit him, an' a strong an'
able-bodied mother ready an' smilin' to hand him whatever he wanted just
as quick as he wanted it. An' she says she never asked him to do nothin'
as she could possibly do herself an' the way Lucy orders him
about!--well, she says it's beyond all belief. An' oh, but she says it
goes through her like a chained-up bolt of lightnin' the voice Lucy
speaks to him in, an' she said she would n't have no one know it for
worlds but she says as near as she can figger she hit him over the head
with a hairbrush night before last."

[B] See "Susan Clegg and her Neighbors' Affairs."

"With a--" cried Mrs. Lathrop, aghast.

"She says she ain't absolutely positive, but they was a-chasin' a June
bug in their room together, an' she heard the smash an' the next mornin'
when she went in to make Hiram's side of the bed after Lucy (she says
Lucy is a most sing'lar bed-maker) she see the nick on the brush, an'
she says when she see the nick an' remembered how hollow it rung, she
knew as it could n't possibly have been nothin' in that room except
Hiram's head. She says if Lucy's begun on Hiram wi