human
she said, after a minute.
gpt
I shouldn't know the days o' the week. I says to Susan Ellen last week I was sure 't was Friday, and she said no, 't was Thursday; but next minute you druv by and headin' toward North Kilby, so we found I was right.
human
I've got to be a featur' of the landscape, said Mr. Briley plaintively.
gpt
This kind o' weather the old mare and me, we wish we was done with it, and could settle down kind o' comfortable. I've been lookin' this good while, as I drove the road, and I've picked me out a piece o' land two or three times. But I can't abide the thought o' buildin',--'t would plague me to death; and both Sister Peak to North Kilby and Mis' Deacon Ash to the Pond, they vie with one another to do well by me, fear I'll like the other stoppin'-place best.
human
responded the passenger with some spirit.
gpt
I see some o' Mis' Peak's cookin' to a farmers' supper once, when I was visitin' Susan Ellen's folks, an' I says 'Deliver me from sech pale-complected baked beans as them!' and she give a kind of a quack. She was settin' jest at my left hand, and couldn't help hearin' of me. I wouldn't have spoken if I had known, but she needn't have let on they was hers an' make everything unpleasant. 'I guess them beans taste just as well as other folks',' says she, and she wouldn't never speak to me afterward.
human
Do' know's I blame her, ventured Mr. Briley.
gpt
Women folks is dreadful pudjicky about their cookin'. I've always heard you was one o' the best o' cooks, Mis' Tobin. I know them doughnuts an' things you've give me in times past, when I was drivin' by. Wish I had some on 'em now. I never let on, but Mis' Ash's cookin' 's the best by a long chalk. Mis' Peak's handy about some things, and looks after mendin' of me up.
human
It doos seem as if a man o' your years and your quiet make ought to have a home you could call your own, suggested the passenger.
gpt
I kind of hate to think o' your bangein' here and boardin' there, and one old woman mendin', and the other settin' ye down to meals that like's not don't agree with ye.
human
Lor', now, Mis' Tobin, le's not fuss round no longer, said Mr. Briley impatiently.
gpt
You know you covet me same's I do you.
human
I don't nuther. Don't you go an' say fo'lish things you can't stand to.
gpt
I've been tryin' to git a chance to put in a word with you ever sence-- Well, I expected you'd want to get your feelin's kind o' calloused after losin' Tobin.
human
There's nobody can fill his place,
gpt
I do' know but I can fight for ye town-meetin' days, on a pinch,
human
I never see the beat o' you men fur conceit, and Mrs. Tobin laughed.
gpt
I ain't goin' to bother with ye, gone half the time as you be, an' carryin' on with your Mis' Peaks and Mis' Ashes. I dare say you've promised yourself to both on 'em twenty times.
human
I hope to gracious if I ever breathed a word to none on 'em! protested the lover.
gpt
I do' know's I should do better, she said unconsciously and half aloud.
human
Well, yes, Jefferson, seem' it's you. But we're both on us kind of old to change our situation.
gpt
Hooray! said Jefferson.
human
I was scairt you meant to keep me sufferin' here a half an hour. I declare, I'm more pleased than I calc'lated on. An' I expected till lately to die a single man!
gpt
said Mrs. Tobin, with confidence.
human
I don't see how you held out so long with bein' solitary.
gpt
I'll hire a hand to drive for me, and we'll have a good comfortable winter, me an' you an' the old sorrel. I've been promisin' of her a rest this good while.
human
Better keep her a steppin', urged thrifty Mrs. Fanny.
gpt
She'll stiffen up master, an' disapp'int ye, come spring.
human
You'll have me, now, won't ye, sartin? pleaded Jefferson, to make sure.
gpt
You ain't one o' them that plays with a man's feelin's. Say right out you'll have me.
human
I s'pose I shall have to, said Mrs. Tobin somewhat mournfully.
gpt
I feel for Mis' Peak an' Mis' Ash, pore creatur's. I expect they'll be hardshipped. They've always been hard-worked, an' may have kind o' looked forward to a little ease. But one on 'em would be left lamentin', anyhow, and she gave a girlish laugh. An air of victory animated the frame of Mrs. Tobin. She felt but twenty-five years of age. In that moment she made plans for cutting her Briley's hair, and making him look smartened-up and ambitious. Then she wished that she knew for certain how much money he had in the bank; not that it would make any difference now.
human
He needn't bluster none before me, she thought gayly.
gpt
He's harmless as a fly.
human
Who'd have thought we'd done such a piece of engineering when we started out?
gpt
Both on us, jest the least grain, answered the lover.
human
Gimme a good smack, now, you clever creatur';