132 THE MOUNTAINS 



instance. A valuable hemlock seemed to 

 be slowly dying, and I asked John for his 

 opinion. He said: "I have watched that 

 tree ever sence 'way back when Dr. 

 Crooks lived here; and off and on she's 

 acted just so ondecided. It's 'bout time 

 she made up her mind what she's goin' 

 to do." 



Quaintness in John was deeper than the 

 whimsical turn of speech, it was part and 

 parcel of his very conception of things. 

 He saw everything in odd relation or odd 

 proportion. Usually the quaintness alone 

 was sufficient to empty his mood, but when 

 quaintness was not enough, he would burst 

 into a gust of delicious humor. Here is 

 an instance which fortunately I have 

 saved, but it must not be thought that 

 in this, or in any other instance, I have 

 entirely succeeded in preserving the dia- 

 lect in every peculiarity of phrase and 

 pronunciation. To do that would be a 

 task almost beyond George W. Cable 

 himself. In the "Old Mansion," while 



