She dints a little, and cries out when she's hurt, an' then she settles back again, smooth and comfortable as ever.
"I don't s'pose you'll understand it, J'rome, because you ain't come to thinking of such things yet, an' showed your sense that you ain't, but I took that very thing into account when I picked out my wife.
There was another girl that I used to see home some, but, Lord, she was a high stepper! Handsome as a picture she was; there ain't a girl in this town to-day that can compare with her; but her head was up, an' her nose quiverin', an' her eyes shinin'.

I knew she liked me pretty well, but, Lord, it was no use! Might as well have set a blooded mare to ploughin'.

She was one of the sort that wouldn't have bent under hardship; she'd have broke.

I knew well enough what a dog-life a wife of mine would have to lead--jest enough to keep body and soul together, an' no extras--an' I wa'n't goin' to drag her into it, an' I didn't.

I knew just how she'd strain, an' work her pretty fingers to the bone to try to keep up.