—at seventeen", responded Miranda. "Now that I 'm strong again, there 's things I want to consider with you, Jane, things that are on my mind night and day. We 've talked 'em over before; now we 'll settle 'em. When I 'm laid away, do you want to take Aurelia and the children down here to the brick house? There 's an awful passel of 'em,—Aurelia, Jenny, and Fanny; but I won't have Mark. Hannah can take him; I won't have a great boy stompin' out the carpets and ruinin' the furniture, though I know when I 'm dead I can't hinder ye, if you make up your mind to do anything."
"I should n't like to go against your feelings, especially in laying out your money, Miranda," said Jane.
"Don't tell Rebecca I 've willed her the brick house. She won't git it till I 'm gone, and I want to take my time 'bout dyin' and not be hurried off by them that's goin' to profit by it; nor I don't want to be thanked, neither. I s'pose she 'll use the front stairs as common as the back and like as not have water brought into the kitchen, but mebbe when I 've been dead a few years I shan't mind. She sets such store by you, she 'll want you to have your home here as long 's you live, but anyway I 've wrote it down that way; though Lawyer Burns's wills don't hold more 'n half the time. He 's cheaper, but I guess it comes out jest the same in the end. I wan't goin' to have the fust man Rebecca picks up for a husband turnin' you ou'doors."
