“I dare say you can advise me what shapes they are goin’ to wear. My
meetin’-bunnit ain’t goin’ to do me again this year; no! I can’t expect
’twould do me forever,” said Mrs. Todd, as soon as she could say
anything. “There! do set down and tell me how you have been! We’ve got a
weddin’ in the family, I s’pose you know?”
“A wedding!” said I, still full of excitement.
“Yes; I expect if the tide serves and the line storm don’t overtake him
they’ll come in and appear out on Sunday. I shouldn’t have concerned me
about the bunnit for a month yet, nobody would notice, but havin’ an
occasion like this I shall show consider’ble. ’Twill be an ordeal for
William!”
“For _William_!” I exclaimed. “What do you mean, Mrs. Todd?”
She gave a comfortable little laugh. “Well, the Lord’s seen reason at
last an’ removed Mis’ Cap’n Hight up to the farm, an’ I don’t know but
the weddin’s goin’ to be this week. Esther’s had a great deal of
business disposin’ of her flock, but she’s done extra well—the folks
that owns the next place goin’ up country are well off. ’Tis elegant
land north side o’ that bleak ridge, an’ one o’ the boys has been
Esther’s righthand man of late. She instructed him in all matters, and
after she markets the early lambs he’s goin’ to take the farm on halves,
an’ she’s give the refusal to him to buy her out within two years. She’s
reserved the buryin’-lot, an’ the right o’ way in, an’—”