This-here's gooder'n you _buy_!"

Ponchus _pats_ fer me an' sings;
An' he says most _funny_ things!
Ponchus calls a dish a "_deesh_"--
Yes, an' _he_ calls fishes "_feesh_"!

When Ma want him eat wiv us
He says, "'Skuse me--'deed you mus'!--
Ponchus know good manners, Miss.--
He aint eat wher' White-folks is!"

'Lindy takes _his_ dinner out
Wher' he's workin'--roun' about.--
Wunst he et his dinner, spread
In our ole wheel-borry-bed.

_Ponchus Pilut_ says "_'at's_ not
His _right_ name,--an' done fergot
What his _sho'-nuff_ name is now--
An' don' matter none _no_how!"

Yes, an' Ponchus he'ps Pa, too,
When our _butcherin's_ to do,
An' scalds hogs--an' says "Take care
'Bout it, er you'll _set the hair_!"

Yes, an' out in our back-yard
He he'ps 'Lindy rendur lard;
An', wite in the fire there, he
Roast' a pig-tail wunst fer me.--

An' ist nen th'ole tavurn-bell
Rung, down town, an' he says "Well!--
Hear dat! _Lan' o' Canaan_, Son,
Aint dat bell say '_Pig-tail done!_'

--'_Pig-tail done!
Go call Son!--
Tell dat
Chile dat
Pig-tail done!_'"

THE WOLF AT SUSAN'S DOOR

BY ANNE WARNER

"Well, Lucy has got Hiram!"

There was such a strong inflection of triumphant joy in Miss Clegg's
voice as she called the momentous news to her friend that it would have
been at once--and most truthfully--surmised that the getting of Hiram
had been a more than slight labor.

Mrs. Lathrop was waiting by the fence, impatience written with a
wandering reflection all over the serenity of her every-day expression.
Susan only waited to lay aside her bonnet and mitts and then hastened to
the fence herself.

"Mrs. Lathrop, you never saw nor heard the like of this weddin' day in
all your own days to be or to come, and I don't suppose there ever will
be anything like it again, for Lucy Dill didn't cut no figger in her own
weddin' a-_tall_,--the whole thing was Gran'ma Mullins first, last and
forever hereafter. I tell you it looked once or twice as if it wouldn't
be a earthly possibility to marry Hiram away from his mother, and now
that it's all over people can't do anything but say as after all Lucy
ought to consider herself very lucky as things turned out, for if things
hadn't turned out as they did turn out I don't believe anything on earth
could have unhooked that s