vocation; 't was to herself he spoke first. You'd think she
owned the whole corporation. I wished I 'd t'rown her over into the
wather, so I did, before he come by at all. 'T was on the bridge the
two of us were. I was stepping home by meself very quiet in the
afthernoon to put me tay-kittle on for supper, and herself overtook
me,--ain't she the bold thing!

"'How are you the day, Mrs. Dunl'avy?' says she, so mincin' an'
preenin', and I knew well she 'd put her mind on having words wit' me
from that minute. I 'm one that likes to have peace in the
neighborhood, if it wa'n't for the likes of her, that makes the top of
me head lift and clat' wit' rage like a pot-lid!"

"What was the matter with the two of you?" asked a listener, with
simple interest.

"Faix indeed, 't was herself had a thrifle of melons planted the other
side of the fince," acknowledged Mrs. Dunleavy. "She said the pumpkins
would be the ruin of them intirely. I says, and 'twas thrue for me,
that I 'd me pumpkins planted the week before she'd dropped anny old
melon seed into the ground, and the same bein' already dwining from so
manny bugs. Oh, but she 's blackhearted to give me the lie about it,
and say those poor things was all up, and she 'd thrown lime on 'em to
keep away their inemies when she first see me come out betune me
cabbage rows. How well she knew what I might be doing! Me cabbages
grows far apart and I 'd plinty of room, and if a pumpkin vine gets
attention you can entice it wherever you pl'ase and it'll grow fine and
long, while the poor cabbages ates and grows fat and round, and no harm
to annybody, but she must pick a quarrel with a quiet 'oman in the face
of every one.

"We were on the bridge, don't you see, and plinty was passing by with
their grins, and loitering and stopping afther they were behind her
back to hear what was going on betune us. Annybody does be liking to
got the sound of loud talk an' they having nothing better to do. Biddy
Con'ly, seeing she was well watched, got the airs of a pr'acher, and
set down whatever she might happen to be carrying and tried would she
get the better of me for the sake of their admiration. Oh, but wa'n't
she all drabbled and wet from the roads, and the world knows meself for
a very tidy walker!

"'Clane the mud from your shoes if you 're going to dance;' 't was all
I said to her, and she being that mad she did be stepping up and down
like an old turkey-hin, and shaking her fi