Of course the Hardshells are prodigiously illiterate, and often vicious.

Some of their preachers are notorious drunkards.

They sing their sermons out sometimes for three hours at a stretch[21].
Ralph found that he was to ride the "clay-bank mare," the only one of the horses that would "carry double," and that consequently he would have to take Miss Hawkins behind him.

If it had been Hannah instead, Ralph might not have objected to this "young Lochinvar" mode of riding with a lady on "the croup," but Martha Hawkins was another affair.

He had only this consolation; his keeping the company of Miss Hawkins might serve to disarm the resentment of Bud.