Marner," how much we could quote! How some of her searching
comments cling to the memory!

"I've nothing to say again' her piety, my dear; but I know very well I
shouldn't like her to cook my victuals. When a man comes in hungry and
tired, piety won't feed him, I reckon. Hard carrots 'ull lie heavy on
his stomach, piety or no piety. I called in one day when she was dishin'
up Mr. Tryan's dinner, an' I could see the potatoes was as watery as
watery. It's right enough to be speritial, I'm no enemy to that, but I
like my potatoes mealy."

"You're right there, Tookey; there's allays two 'pinions: there's the
'pinion a man has of himsen, and there's the 'pinion other folks have on
him. There'd be two 'pinions about a cracked bell if the bell could hear
itself."

"You're mighty fond o' Craig; but for my part, I think he's welly like a
cock as thinks the sun's rose o' purpose to hear him crow."

"When Mr. Brooke had something painful to tell it was usually his way to
introduce it among a number of disjointed particulars, as if it were a
medicine that would get a milder flavor by mixing."

"Heaven knows what would become of our sociality if we never visited
people we speak ill of; we should live like Egyptian hermits, in crowded
solitude."

"No, I ain't one to see the cat walking into the dairy and wonder what
she's come after."

"I have nothing to say again' Craig, on'y it is a pity he couldna be
hatched o'er again, and hatched different."

"I'm not denyin' the women are foolish; God Almighty made 'em to match
the men."

"It's a waste of time to praise people dead whom you maligned while
living; for it's but a poor harvest you'll get by watering last year's
crop."

"I suppose Dinah's like all the rest of the women, and thinks two and
two will come to make five, if she only cries and makes bother enough
about it."

"Put a good face on it and don't seem to be looking out for crows, else
you'll set other people to watchin' for 'em, too."

"I took pretty good care, before I said 'sniff,' to be sure she would
say 'snaff,' and pretty quick, too. I warn't a-goin' to open my mouth
like a dog at a fly, and snap it to again wi' nothin' to swaller."

CHAPTER III.

FROM ANNE BRADSTREET TO MRS. STOWE.

The same gratifying progress and improvement noticed in the wit of women
of other lands is seen in studying the literary annals of our own
countrywomen.

Think of Anne Bradstreet, Mercy Warren, and Tabitha Tenne