Wouldn't you, Jim?"
"I don't bet, Uncle Jasper,--but--but if she wanted me to I would."
"Of course you would, or any other preacher, if he's a man."
Mrs. Mayfield was looking at Jim and he sat illumined beneath her gaze.
"Your compliments are all so new and strange to me," she said. "And in
them I can find no flattery."
"Ma'm, I have never tried to flatter any one. Judas was a flatterer."
"That's right, ma'm," the old man declared, laughing and slapping his
leg; "an' I'd ruther a man would tell me a flat-footed lie than to pour
molasses on me. Young feller," he asked of Tom, "did you like yo'
ride?"
"Charmed with it, I assure you. Auntie called it a continuous panorama."
"Wall, I never thought about it in that way, but I reckon that's about
what it is."
"Oh, such visions are not to be forgotten," Mrs. Mayfield spoke up, and
at the sound of her voice Jim dodged. "And such air, Mr.
Starbuck--ethereal liquor of the gods."
At the word liquor Jasper's jaw dropped with a "hah?"
"Yes," she said, "wine from the press of Paradise.
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