He sot a-rockin' hisse'f in dat big cheer ob his'n an' I yered him say--'Yes, in a minute,' but he didn't move.

Den she holler ag'in at him an' still he rock hisse'f, sayin' he's comin'.

Den, fust thing I knowed out she come to de woodpile an' git it herse'f, an' den when she pass him wid 'er arms full o' wood he look up an' say--'Peggy, come yere an' kiss me--I dunno what we'd do widout ye--you'se de Lawd's anointed, sho'.'" Kate got no end of amusement out of him, and would often walk with him to court that she might listen to his drolleries--especially his queer views of life--the simplest and most unaffected to which she had ever bent her ears.

Now and then, as time went on, despite her good-natured toleration of his want of independence--he being always dominated by his wife--she chanced, to her great surprise, upon some nuggets of hard common-sense of so high an assay that they might really be graded as wisdom--his analysis of men and women being particularly surprising.
Those little twinkling, and sometimes sleepy, eyes of his, now that she began to study him the closer, reminded her of the unreadable eyes of an elephant she had once seen--eyes that presaged nothing but inertia, until whack went the trunk and over toppled the boy who had teased him.
And with this new discovery there developed at last a certain respect for the lazy, good-natured, droll old man.

Opinions which she had heretofore laughed at suddenly became of value; criticisms which she had passed over in silence seemed worthy of further consideration.
Peggy, however, fitted into all the tender places of her heart.