responsibilities of wifehood and parenthood, let her do so, but havin' assumed 'em let her realize their duty and dignity, for," sez I, "to create a true home, Evangeline, is worthy of all a woman's efforts, and in such a cause even brooms and dish-cloths take on a sacred meaning."
But she said that mops and dish-cloths and such things wuz fetters that she could not brook. And at that moment the three little imps all fell into the room demandin' with shrieks and kicks sunthin' or ruther that their Ma couldn't pay any attention to, as she wuz absorbed in contemplating a slight thickness in a minute part of the butterfly's wing on Sikey's shoulder, and her mind wuz all took up in thinkin' how could she prune it off without destroying the wing, it wuz so fragile and yet so highly necessary to be done. So havin' howled round her for a spell and tugged at her Greek robe, so I see plain how the dirt and rents come on it, they hailed the passin' figger of the hired girl in the hall and precipitated themselves onto her, havin' previously kicked at the panels of the door so it almost parted asunder, so I could see plain how in a year's time everything wuz in ruins outside and inside Nestle Down, and how impracticable it wuz that any ordinary person could by any possibility ever nestle down there, but Josiah here broke in agin:
"Evangeline, how long did your husband live?"
Sez she, liftin' a torn lace handkerchief to her eyes, and leanin' up against one of her statutes a good deal as I've seen Grief in a monument in a mournin' piece, "He lingered along for years, but he wuz sick all the time, he had acute dyspepsia."
"I thought so," said Josiah, "I almost knowed it!"
Agin I wunk at him to keep still, but his arms wuz
