dropping in this way before her mother and father died, twenty years gone.
"Well, I 'low, 'Liphalet, that you've heerd the news."
"There ain't no grass grows under the feet of the talkers in this town, I tell you."
"Dear me! a body can't turn aroun' without settin' a whole forest of tongues a-wag- gin' every which way."
"Oh, well, Miss Hester, we got to 'low that to yore sex. The women folks must talk."
"My sex! It ain't my sex only: I know plenty o' men in this town who air bigger gossips 'n the women. I'll warrant you didn't git this piece o' news from no woman."
"Well, mebbe I did n't, but I ca'c'late there wa'n't no men there to git it fust hand."
"Oh, I'll be bound some o' the women had to go an' tell a man the fust thing: some women can't git along without the men."
"An' then, ag'in, some of 'em kin, Miss Hester; some of 'em kin."
"You'd jest as well start out an' say what you want to say without a-beatin' about the bush. I know, jest as well as I know I'm
