"
And all the women but Mis' Primrose, they says:
"Elmira Appleton, you HAVE got a Christian
sperrit!" Which done her a heap of good, and she
cried considerable harder, leaking out tears as fast
as she poured tea in. Each one on em tries to
find out something good to say about Hank, only
they wasn't much they could say. And Hank in
that there cistern a-listening to every word of it.
Mis' Rogers, she says:
"Afore he took to drinking like a fish, Hank
Walters was as likely looking a young feller as I
ever see."
Mis' White, she says:
"Well, Hank he never was a stingy man, nohow.
Often and often White has told me about seeing
Hank, after he'd sold a piece of land, treating the
hull town down in Nolan's bar-room jest as come-
easy, go-easy as if it wasn't money he orter paid
his honest debts with."
They set there that-a-way telling of what good
pints they could think of fur ten minutes, and Hank
a-hearing it and getting madder and madder all the
time. The gineral opinion was that Hank wasn't
no good and was better done fur, and no matter
what they said them feelings kep' sticking out
through the words.
By and by Tom Alexander come busting into the
house, and his wife, Mis' Alexander, was with him.
"What's the matter with all you folks," he says.
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