'em, I most gave a snort out
loud. Didn't Mis' Plunkett look nice in that second mourning tucker it
took Louisa Helen and all of Sweetbriar to persuade her into?"

"Lou Plunkett is as pretty as a chiny aster that blooms in September
and what she's having these number-two conniptions over Mr. Crabtree
for is more than I can see. I look on a second husband as a good
dessert after a fine dinner and a woman oughter swallow one when
offered without no mincing. I wouldn't make two bites of taking Mr.
Crabtree after poor puny Mr. Plunkett if it was me. Of course there
never was such a man as Mr. Satterwhite, but he was always mighty
busy, while Cal Rucker is a real pleasure to me a-setting around the
house on account of his soft constitution. Mr. Satterwhite, I'm
thankful to say, left me so well provided for that I can afford Mr.
Rucker as a kind of play ornament."

"Yes, they ain't nothing been thought up yet to beat marrying,"
answered Mrs. Poteet. "Now didn't Emma Satterwhite find a good chanct
when Todd Crabtree married her and took her away after all that young
Tucker Alloway doings? It were a kind of premium for flightiness, but
I for one was glad to get her gone off'en Rose Mary's hands. I
couldn't a-bear to see her tending hand and foot a woman she were
jilted for."

"Well, a jilt from some men saves a woman from being married with a
brass ring outen a popcorn box, in my mind, and Tucker Alloway were
one of them kind of men. But talking about marrying, I'm kinder
troubled in my mind about something, and I know I can depend on you
not to say nothing to nobody. Mr. Gid Newsome stopped at my gate last
week and got me into a kinder hinting chavering that have been
a-troubling me ever since. Now that's where Mr. Rucker is such a
comfort to me, he'll stay awake and worry as long as I have need of,
while I wouldn't a-dared to speak to Mr. Satterwhite after he put out
the light. But this is about what I've pieced outen that talk with the
Senator, with Cal's help. That mortgage he has got on the Briars about
covers it, like a double blanket on a single bed, and with the
interest beginning to pile up it's hard to keep the ends tucked in.
The time have come when Mr. Tucker can't make it no more and something
has got to be done. But they ain't no use to talk about moving them
old folks. I gather from a combination of what Mr. Gid looked and
_didn't_ say that he were entirely willing to take over the place and
make some sorter