human
Well, she said with a sigh,
gpt
I knowed there was gwine to be trouble of some kind--old Billy Sanders went by here this mornin' as drunk as a lord.
human
Drunk!
gpt
Well, sorter tollerbul how-come-you-so. The last time old Billy was drunk, was when sesaytion was fetched on. Ev'ry time he runs a straw in a jimmy-john, he fishes up trouble. An' my dream's out. I dremp last night that a wooden-leg man come to the door, an' ast me for a pair of shoes. I ast him what on earth he wanted wi' a pair, bein's he had but one foot. He said that the foot he didn't have was constant a-feelin' like it was cold, an' he allowed maybe it'd feel better ef it know'd that he had a shoe ready for it ag'in colder weather.
human
Oh, I hate him! I just naturally despise him!
gpt
Why do you hate the wooden-leg man, honey? It was all in a dream,
human
Oh, I don't know what you are talking about, Nonny! exclaimed Nan, ready to cry.
gpt
I mean old Billy Sanders. And if I don't give him a piece of my mind when I see him. Now Gabriel will go to that place to-night, and he's nothing but a boy.
human
A boy! well, I dunner where you'll find your men ef Gabriel ain't nothin' but a boy. Where's anybody in these diggin's that's any bigger or stouter? I wish you'd show 'em to me,
gpt
I don't care, Nan persisted;
human
I know just what Gabriel will do. He'll go to that place to-night, and--and--I'd rather go there myself.
gpt
Well, my life!
human
Now, Nonny! don't say a word--don't tease--don't tease me about Gabriel. If you do, I'll never tell you anything more for ever and ever.
gpt
All this is bran new to me, Mrs. Absalom declared.
human
You make me feel, Nan, like I was in some strange place, talkin' wi' some un I never seed before. You ain't no more like yourself--you ain't no more like you used to be--than day is like night, an' I'm jest as sorry as I can be.
gpt
That's what Gabriel says, sighed Nan.
human
He said he was sorry, and now you say you are sorry. Oh, Nonny, I don't want any one to be sorry for me.
gpt
Well, then, behave yourself, an' be like you use to be, an' stop trollopin' aroun' wi' them highfalutin' gals downtown. They look like they know too much. All they talk about is boys, boys, boys, from mornin' till night; an' I noticed when they was spendin' a part of the'r time here that you was just as bad. It was six of one an' twice three of the rest. Now you know that ain't a sign of good health for gals to be eternally talkin' about boys, 'specially sech ganglin', lop-sided creeturs as we've got aroun' here.
human
Where's Johnny? asked Nan, who evidently had no notion of getting in a controversy with Mrs. Absalom on the subject of boys.
gpt
Johnny was her name for her step-mother, whose surname of Dion had been changed to
human
Johns