OUR HELP 161 



guess. Heigh ! now I've gone and done 

 it !' as a choice piece of Dresden slips 

 through her pudgy fingers with a crash. 

 As yet but imperfectly acquainted with the 

 Impossible Person, you rashly assume that 

 her sentiments are even as your own would 

 be at so direful an accident, and you assure 

 her that the cup was already cracked. '/ 

 should say / Didn't look anything so 

 almighty fine, anyhow cost a dollar or two 

 when it was new, like as not. Bill gave one 

 hundred dollars for the bric-a-brac on my 

 parlour mantel ; and I tell you them gilt 

 vtfses were about worth lookin' at ! And 

 the crayon portraits of him and me each 

 side o' that mantel had the handsomest 

 frames you ever laid your eyes on. We 

 lived tip-top, we did kep' the richest table. 

 Your account at the grocery ain't a patch on 

 mine !' 



' Perhaps that is the reason you suffer 

 from dyspepsia now,' you suggest, with a 

 meekness born of the first encounter with 

 an avalanche. 



' Like as not ' complacently ; ' we never 

 stinted ourselves for nothin'. We had a 



ii 



