e than
to buy five or six years ago when he was layin' in a stock o' summer
goods. ("Old man Sanford run a country store, child, along with his
farmin'," interpolated Aunt Jane.) And,' says she, 'after they'd
stayed in the store three or four seasons I took 'em and wore 'em to
keep 'em from bein' a dead loss. And when Henry come out o' the army
he was half naked and more'n half dead, betwixt the Yankees and the
chills and fever, and I put these shirts on him to protect his chest.'

"Well, Emmeline said as soon as the old lady begun talkin', her heart
got as light as a feather, and she felt like a thousand pounds had
been lifted off of her mind. But she said she looked around at Henry,
and he was watchin' to see how she'd take it, and all at once he burst
out laughin', and that made her mad again, and she thought about all
the trouble she'd been through, and she begun cry in' again and says
she, 'Oh! why didn't you tell me that? Why didn't you tell me?'
Emmeline said Henry's mother come over and put her arms around her and
says she, 'Henry Sanford, what prank have you been playin' on your
wife? Tell me this minute.' And Henry begun explainin' things and
tryin' to smooth it over, and I reckon he thought his mother'd see the
joke jest like he did, but she didn't. She looked at Henry over her
spectacles mighty stern and says she, 'Henry, I've always been afeard
you didn't have your full share o' punishment whilst you were growin'
up, bein' the youngest child, and if it wasn't that you're a married
man I'd certainly give you one o' the whippin's you missed when you
were a boy.' And Henry says, 'Well, maybe I ought to be punished for
not tellin' Emmeline, but I jest thought I'd play a joke on her, and
if Emmeline had only had a little confidence in me it wouldn't 'a'
worried her the way it did.' And old lady Sanford, she says,
'Confidence! Confidence! There's jest one person I put my confidence
in, and that's Almighty God.' Says she, 'If a man's crippled in both
feet, and the front door and the back door's locked, and I've got both
my eyes on him, I may make out to trust him a minute or two, but
that's about all.' Says she, 'Of course a woman ought to trust her
husband; but that don't mean that she's got to shut her eyes and her
ears and throw away her common sense.' Says she, 'Emmeline don't know
as much about you as your father knows about that old roan mare he
bought day before yesterday. A man's jest like a horse,' says s