? ? ? ? "Well, then, I'll believe some of it; but I hope to gracious if I'll believe the rest."
? ? ? ? "What is it you won't believe, Joe?" says Mary Jane, stepping in with Susan behind her. "It ain't right nor kind for you to talk so to him, and him a stranger and so far from his people. How would you like to be treated so?"
? ? ? ? "That's always your way, Maim- always sailing in to help somebody before they're hurt. I hain't done nothing to him. He's told some stretchers, I reckon; and I said I wouldn't swallow it all; and that's every bit and grain I did say. I reckon he can stand a little thing like that, can't he?"
? ? ? ? "I don't care whether 'twas little or whether 'twas big, he's here in our house and a stranger, and it wasn't good of you to say it. If you was in his place, it would make you feel ashamed; and so you oughtn't to say a thing to another person that will make them feel ashamed."
? ? ? ? "Why, Maim, he said-"
? ? ? ? "It don't make no difference what he said- that ain't the thing.
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