it an' offer to split dollars. Of co'se
I ain't a-buyin' it, but ef I was I wouldn't want no reduction on it,
I'd feel like ez ef it would always know it an' have a sort of contemp'
for me. They's suitableness in all things. Besides, I never want no
reduction on anything I buy for _her_, someways. You can charge me
reg'lar prices an' make it up on the Christmas gif' she buys for
me--that is, ef she buys it from you. Of co'se it'll be charged.
That's a mighty purty coral broach, that grape-bunch one, but she's
so pink-complected, I don't know ez she'd become it. I like this
fish-scale set, myself, but she might be prejerdyced ag'in' the idee
of it. You say she admired that hand-merror, an' this pair o'
side-combs--an' she 'lowed she'd git 'em fur my Christmus gif' ef she
dared? But, of co'se, she was jokin' about that. Poor little thing, she
ain't never got over the way folks run her about that side-saddle she
give me last Christmus, though I never did see anything out o' the way
in it. She knew thet the greatest pleasure o' my life was in makin' her
happy, and she was jest simple-hearted enough to do it--that's all--an'
I can truly say thet I ain't never had mo' pleasure out of a Christmus
gif' in my life than I've had out o' that side-saddle. She's been so
consistent about it--never used it in her life without a-borryin' it of
me, an' she does it so cunnin'. Of co'se I don't never loand it to her
without a kiss. They ain't a cunnin'er play-actor on earth 'n she is,
though she ain't never been to a theatre--an' wouldn't go, bein' too
well raised.

"You say this pitcher wasn't there when she was here--no, for ef it had
'a' been, I know she'd 'a' took on over it. Th' ain't never been one
for sale in Simpkinsville before. They've been several of 'em brought
here by families besides the one old Mis' Meredy presided over--though
that was one o' the first. But wife is forever a-pickin' out purty
patterns of 'em in the catalogues. Ef that one hadn't 'a' give me such
a setback in my early youth I'd git her this, jest to please her. Ef I
was to buy this one, it an' the plush album would set each other off
lovely. She's a-buyin' _it_ on instalments from the same man thet
enlarged her photograph to a' ile-painted po'trait, an' it's a dandy!
She's got me a-settin' up on the front page, took with my first wife,
which it looks to me thet if she'd do that much to please me, why, I
might buy almost anything to please her, don't it? Of