I see Elinor she looked considerable faded and anxious-*eyed; for all the world her eyes looked like her Ma's—lovin' and faithful as a dog's, and as anxious lookin' as a dog's when it has been doin' sunthin' and expects a whippin'. I had hearn from a neighbor that Louis wuz of late growin' cool in his attentions to Elinor. And I felt bad, for I mistrusted how it wuz done. She had sot him up on such a hite that he looked down on her. Good land! with her poster, he had to look down if he see her at all. The neighbor said that it wuz spozed that Elinor wuz goin' into a decline, and sez she: "That Louis Arnold is a villian. He paid her attention for a year and won her love, and wuz as good as engaged to her, and she doin' everything under the sun to keep his love, and then he grew cool and drawed off. He is a villian!" she repeated.
"Well, mebby there is blame on both sides."
And agin she sez, "Elinor did everything to hold him, and duz yet, for she still hopes to keep him."
And I sez, "Mebby she did too much."
And the neighbor glared at me, and sez coldly, "I don't understand you."
And I sez, "No, I spoze not." And I didn't explain furder, nor she didn't.
And this neighbor, bein' a sharp-eyed-and-nosed woman, who evidently loved scandal, sez, "Have you hearn anything more about Fidelia's troubles?"
And I sez, "No."
And she sez, "Poor creeter! she is passin' through the waters."
And I sez: "What waters? Has she fell into the creek, or has her suller overflowed?"
And then she sez, right out, "Her hired girl gits
