Well, sir, I kept it up good an' strong.

First thing I knowed, she was beginnin' to look as though a bee had stung her an' she couldn't find the place.

I'd ketch her stealin' sly glances at me an' she allus found me with a grin on my face--a good, healthy grin, too.
"There wasn't anything to laugh at, mind you, but she didn't know that.
She got to fixin' her back hair and lookin' worried about her clothes.
'Nen she'd wipe her face to see if the powder was on straight, all the time wonderin' what in thunder I was laughin' at.

If she passed in her kerridge she'd peep back to see if I was laughin'; and I allus was.

I never failed.