"
"Ma'm, you air settin' in a boat, paddlin' at ease and I am a rollin' up
my britches higher an' higher, a tryin' to wade atter you; but you air a
gittin' out whar it is too deep fur me to foller you."
"A compliment charmingly expressed, Mr. Starbuck. But if I row away from
you, it was you who placed me in the boat."
"Ma'm, I allus thought it would be hard to talk to an educated woman. I
'lowed she would talk a finery that I couldn't understand, but you
sorter make me change my mind."
"Jasper, you do fret a body so," Margaret put in. "You would lead us to
think you never met a woman befo'. Why, thar air lots o' women up
here--can't talk silk and braid and plush, but they know how to say what
they mean."
Mrs. Mayfield bowed to her. "I quite agree with you, Mrs. Starbuck.
Women everywhere are pretty much the same."
"So glad to hear you say that, Miz Mayfield," Margaret replied. "It
ain't often that anybody agrees with me--Jasper never do. If I'd say a
crow's black, he'd 'low it was white."
"Yes," drawled the old man, "ef you was to say so; but you never would
say a crow was black.
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