swingin' him up above the housetops; common sense alone is too heavy, weightin' a chap down; but take both together, with perseverin' industry and a lovin' heart, they will take a boy right straight towards a monument, and that is jest where Tom Willis is goin'. He is goin' away from the jealous eyes and persecutions and tribulations; whether we help or hender, he is bound for a newer, grander country, a prosperous future where he will cast anchor bimeby; his sails are sot for it, he will git to it, and whether he carries into it a happy or a achin' heart depends on you, Tamer Ann Smith."
"Oh, shaw!" sez she.
Sez I mildly, "Shawin' never did any good in the past, Tamer Ann, nor I have no reason to think it will in the future."
Nor any hurt, I sez to myself reasonable, for I had faith to think that it would all come out right in the end, dark as it looked now, for Anna wouldn't marry without her ma's consent, and it looked like obtaining sweet milk from a soapstun to git a consent from Tamer Ann. But I kep' my faith, and would say to myself time and agin, Hain't it as big as a mustard seed? Can't I git up faith as big as a pinhead? I ort to, and then I would try.
That very day, whilst Tamer and I wuz visitin', word come that her mother on her own side wuz took away with a fit and the funeral wuz to be to the house next day but one.
Hamen's wife felt quite bad, she shed a number of tears that I see, and mebby some I didn't see, I shouldn't wonder, for a mother is a mother as long as her skin and bones hold her heart. Of course for years Ma Bodley had been failin' and runnin' down, but watched over good by Tamer's old maid sister, Alzina.
