much. She
says she was meek an' Hiram's meek, an' she did n't get no reward but
soap an' that cheese, an' all Hiram's got so far is the hairbrush, an'
the water pitcher loomin'.

"I told her my own feelin's was as marriage was n't enough took into
consideration nowadays, an' that it was too easy at the start, an' too
hard at the finish. You know yourself, Mrs. Lathrop, as there ain't a
mite o' doubt but what if the honeymoon come just afore the funeral
there'd be a deal more sincere mournin' than there is as it is now, an'
to _my_ order of thinkin', if the grandchildren come afore the children,
folks would raise their families wiser. I told Gran'ma Mullins just that
very thing but it did n't seem to give her much comfort. She give a
little yell an' said oh, Heaven preserve her from havin' to sit by an'
watch Lucy Dill raise Hiram's children, for she was sure as she'd never
be able to give 'em enough pie on the sly to keep 'em happy an' any one
with half an eye could see they'd be washed an' brushed half to death.
She says Lucy won't wash a dish without rinsin' it afterwards or sweep
a room without carryin' all the furniture out into the yard; oh my, she
says her ways is most awful an' I expect that, to Gran'ma Mullins, they
are.

"I cheered her all I could. I told her she'd better make the best o'
things now, 'cause o' course as Lucy got older Hiram'd make her madder
an' madder, an' they'll all soon be lookin' back to this happy first
year as their one glimpse of paradise. I did n't tell her what Lucy told
me o' course, 'cause she'd go an' tell Hiram, an' Hiram must love Lucy
or he'd never stand being hit for a June bug or woke with a wash-cloth.
But I did kind of wonder how long it would last. If I was Lucy it would
n't last long, I know _that_. If I'd ever married a man I don't know how
long he'd of stood it or how long I'd of stood him, but I know one
thing, Mrs. Lathrop, an' I know that from my heels to my hairpins--an' I
said it to Elijah last night, an' I'm goin' to say it to you now--an'
that is that if I could n't of stood him I would n't of stood him, for
this is the age when women as read the papers don't stand nothin' they
don't want to--an' I would n't neither."

"I--" said Mrs. Lathrop.

"Well, you ain't me," said Miss Clegg, "you ain't me an' you ain't
Elijah neither. I talk very kind to Elijah, but there's no livin' in the
house with any man as supposes livin' in the house with any other woman
is goi