on the
road, awed to silence by the action of a rocking-chair, no matter how
brilliant.

"I reckon I can thrash my own children when it's needed, without gettin'
in help from the East, or hereabouts either, for that matter. If other
folks would only take out their public-spirited reformin' tendencies on
their own famblies, there'd be a heap less lynchin' likely to happen round
the country in the course of the next ten years."

Old Sally let the home-thrust pass. "Who ever hearn tell of a good teacher
that wasn't a fine thrasher in the bargain?" She swung the chair about
with a pivotal motion, as if she were addressing an assemblage instead of
a single listener, and then, bethinking herself of a clinching
illustration, she called aloud to her daughter to bear witness. "Eudory!
Eu-do-ry! You-do-ry!"

"Ye-'s ma'am," drawled the daughter, coming most unwillingly from the
open-faced room opposite, where she had been inciting all four of the
suitors to battle.

"What was it they called that teacher down to Caspar that larruped the
hide off'n the boys?"

"A fine dis-a-_ply_-narian, maw."

"Yes, that's it--a dis-a-_ply_-narian. What kin a lettle green gourd like
her know 'bout dis-apply-in?"

"Your remarks shore remind me of a sayin' that 'the discomfort of havin'
to swallow other folks' dust causes a heap of anxiety over their reckless
driving.'"

Mrs. Yellett flicked her riding-boot with her whip. Her voice dropped a
couple of tones, her accent became one of honeyed sweetness.

"Your consumin' anxiety regardin' my gov'ment and my children shore
reminds me of a narrative appertainin' to two dawgs. Them dawgs was
neighbors, livin' in adj'inin' yards separated by a fence, and one day one
of them got a good meaty bone and settled hisself down to the enj'yment
thereof. And his intimate friend and neighbor on the other side of the
fence, who had no bone to engage his faculties, he began to fret hisself
'bout the business of his friend. S'pose he was to choke hisself over that
bone. S'pose the meat disagreed with him. And he begins to bark warnin's,
but the dawg with the bone he keeps right on. But the other dawg he dashes
hisself again the fence and he scratches with his claws. He whines
pitiful, he's that anxious about his friend. But the dawg with the bone he
went right on till he gnawed it down to the last morsel, and, goin' to the
hole in the fence whar his friend had kep' that anxious vigil, he says:
'Friend, the o