But it wuz mortifyin', nobody could dispute it, to have
company come and have nothin' to put on. Several times she had to withdraw
into the woodhouse, and stay most all day there shiverin', and under the
suller stairs and round in clothes presses. But he boasted in prayer
meetin's and on boxes before grocery stores that he wuz a law-abidin'
citizen, and he wuz. Eben Flanders wouldn't lie for anybody.
But I'll bet Abagail Flanders beat our old revolutionary four-mothers in
thinkin' out new laws, when she lay round under stairs and behind barrels
in her night-gown. When a man hides his wife's stockin's and petticoats
it is governin' without the consent of the governed. If you don't believe
it you'd ort to peeked round them barrels and seen Abagail's eyes, they
had hull reams of by-laws in 'em and preambles, and Declarations of
Independence, so I've been told. But it beat everything I ever hearn on,
the lawful sufferin's of them wimmen. For there wuzn't nothin' illegal
about one single trouble of theirn. They suffered accordin' to law, every
one on 'em. But it wuz tuff for 'em, very tuff. And their bein' so dretful
humbly wuz another drawback to 'em, though that too wuz perfectly lawful,
as everybody knows.
And Serepta looked as bad agin as she would otherwise on account of her
teeth. It wuz after Lank had begun to git after this other woman, and wuz
indifferent to his wife's looks that Serepta had a new set of teeth on her
upper jaw.
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