Far from it." "Nobody's dead, then ?" "No.

Though I could find some who are half dead without trying very hard." More perfectly good sarcasm wasted.

Lute inquired eagerly if I meant old Mrs.Lobelia Glover.

"I heard yesterday she was pretty feeble," he added.

"'Tain't to be expected she'll last a long spell, at her age.
Doctor Quimby says she had a spine in her back for twenty years." I made no comment upon poor Mrs.Glover's surprising affliction.