Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1882-07-20
JUST LIKE A MAN"

"They do beat all r. sighed Mrs.
Peck, as she wiped her face earnestly
with spotted cotton handkerchief, and
set her spectacles aloft on top of her
cap border. "I summered an wintered
one on 'em nigh on to fifty years, and
the was things done't don't see into
up to this day. Beside, I had sons, and
darters' husbands as we'll, and they're
all of piece; tarred with the same
stick, as Lias used to say.
"Well spoke up Miss Patty Brinkly,
q vivacious maiden lady, stopping to
thread her needle, with both elbows on
the quilt frame and her thread and
needle stabbing at each other nearly
half yard away from her straining
eyes. "I han't never had no such ex-
perience, thanks be to praise |" Pa
used to say if had ha' married any
body I'd have killed 'em or ran away
from 'em, and dono but what should
"They had something to be thankful
for, then, as well as thee, Patty" dryly
remarked Aunt Marcia Blinn, the only
lady of the "Friends" persuasion, as
she called it, of whom Oakley boasted.
"Well, they're queer, anyhow" re-
sumed the Widow Peck. "There's no
'countin' for EN-; they'll up and do
things you wouldn't no more expect of
'em than anything; and as for bein' pro-
tectors for women folks and all that,
which folks tell about in books, my
landi Lias Peck would ha' died more'n
forty times eff I hadn't ha' had dry
things for to put onto him when he
came in soakin' wet out of the crick or
after pourin' rain. AS twas, he died
o. rheumatic u he took along o foatin'
saw logs down to the mill in q spring
freshet and never coming home to dinner,
but working ali day in them damp
clothes. I gave him pokeberry rum
and hemlock, and two hull bottles of
Gumption's ginger bitters, besides a
rubin of him powerful with campfire
before I sent for the doctor; but it
struck to his stomic and he went off
like snuff. But that amt here nor
there; as I was sayin', for nigh onto
fifty years I'd put his flannel shirts into
the front left hand corner Of the bottom
drawer in the m'hog'ny bureau in the
bedroom, and every Sunday mornin'
reg'lar, when he was cleanin' up for
meetin', he'd holler out 'Lurancy,
where's them flannel shirts o. mine f'
Now that's so p concluded the dis
consulate widow, and adding in stage
aside: "But I'd give considerable to
hear him holler that again |"
"And they hain't got no memory"
put in Miss Patty, who had at last coaxed
needle and thread to an amicable un.
derstanding, and was quilting away with
zeal and discretion, as every good
quilter knows how. "I never seen the
time when they wouldn't forget thirgs
I've tailored round quite q number o.
years, and I've had an eye on 'em as
you say. There was Silas Buck, used
to tailor for his folks consider'le; the,
was him and three boys and the hired
man. Well, I'd get out O. linen thread,
say, and you can't no more make over
hauls with sewin' cotton than you can
with spider webs, and Mis- Buck she'd
say, 'Silas,' says she, 'Miss Patty's all
out o. linen thread. When ye go down
to the store after them rake tails I wish't
you'd fetch up hank O black and a
hank o. brown. Now don't ye
.forgit itp And Silas he'd
laugh, he was just as clever as q
basket o. chips, and he'd say I'll fetch
it, mother'-but he wouldn't md set
md set waitin' for t. and dn'lly put on
my bunnet and walk mile down to the
Corners for to fetch it myself; then he'd
say, 'Cousin Patty'-you see we called
cousins because his fathers second wife
was sister to my Aunt Sophrony's hus-
band Cousin Patty, hain't you goi
them overhauls done YETI and I'd dsortel