and my poor Josiah's head wuz bare beneath the touch of Time's hand, which had been strokin' him down for so long a time. I told the children at the breakfast table, as they sot in their little high chairs opposite to Josiah and me, and my face wuz jest as earnest and good as I could make it:
"You couldn't have pleased us so well with any other valentine in the world, there couldn't be one bought anywhere that we should have liked half so well—could there, Josiah?"
"No," sez he, "not one; there hain't a valentine in the hull country that could compare with the one we got this mornin'."
And then the children bust right out laughin', they wuz so tickled to think we liked it, and they laughed partly, I think, because I had gin each on 'em a little glass dish of honey as a treat on account of the valentine. Bless their sweet hearts! could any other valentine be tinged with the light of love that gilt ourn? Could any picture match the lustrous tenderness of the soft gray eyes, and soft mornin' glory blue ones? Could any gold-edged paper equal the glint of the golden hair, could any page equal the pink tinge of the rosy cheeks, and the white forwards and necks, and little pink toes stickin' out under their nightgowns as our dear little valentines come to us in the fresh morning light, warmin' up the coldness of a February morning?
Well, a few days after this Josiah told me he had seen Mrs. Greene Smythe to Thomas Jefferson's office, and she wanted to see me on a little bizness, and wanted me to come in when I wuz up that way, as she understood I wuz quite often, she wanted to consult me about
