Is that
cheer comfortable, Alice? I s'pose I ought to say Misses Guv'nor
Sawyer, but it don't come nat'ral, I've known yer so long."
"I shall always be Alice to my good friend Mrs. Hawkins and her
daughter Mandy."
"Speakin' o' Mandy, you know she's got two little boys--twins, one
named after Deacon Mason, and t'other after your husband's friend
Obadiah Strout, ther perfesser--and she's got a little girl, nigh on
ter two years old named Marthy after me--but they don't call her
Marthy--it's allus Mattie. These new-fangled names fuss me all up. If
Mary and Marthy were good enough for the Lord's friends, I don't know
what he'd think to hear 'em called Mamie and Mattie.
"Speakin' o' names, there's my Jonas, which is same as Jonah I
s'pose. Anyway it fits him to a T, for he's a reg'lar Jonah if there
ever was one, which our minister, Mr. Gay, you'll meet him at dinner-
time to-morrow, says he's doubtful about.
"If a whale swallowed my Jonas it couldn't keep him down, for he's
just _satirated_ with tobacco smoke--he says he has to puff it on the
hens and chickens to kill the varmints, and I should think it would.
Do you smoke, Mr. Sawyer?"
"Cigars, occasionally. I am not an habitual smoker."
"Well, old Mr. Trask told me as how pipe smoke wouldn't colour lace
curtains same as cigars do. Now you jes' smoke all you want to up in
your room an' I'll see if it washes out.
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