Mary E. Wilkins

“ Desprit! I ain't got no patience with sech kind of work. Ready to pull the house down, 'bout a girl. I s'pose it's what they call—love! H'm! it's 'nough to make anybody sick! Love!" Jane's voice as she said "love" had a contemptuous drawl.
Elvira, with her head gently inclined to one side, looked doubtfully at her sister. Being supposed to have no acquaintance with love, she had more respect for him. "Well, I s'pose men do pretty desprit things sometimes on account of love," she said, in a shamefaced way. ”

“ Don't you remember how mother dreamed three times runnin' how father was goin' on a journey, before he died?"
"Well, if you want to believe sech stuff you can. I wish you'd stop talkin'. I've been broke of my rest 'bout all I want to be. I dun know but I'll go into the spare bedroom anyhow. I s'pose jest as I git fairly to sleep again you'll dream it over again an' grab me."
"Jane, don't you think it means somethin'?"
"It means I'm goin' into the spare bedroom, an' I ain't goin' to lay here talkin' 'bout it."
"Don't, Jane; I won't speak another word." ”

“ Jonas Amesbury, you make me mad talkin' such stuff. I don't see where you got such notions; for my part I know you didn't git 'em from me. Rose Tenney—h'm! S'pose she does curl her hair over her forehead, an' wear her dresses all girt in round her waist, an' act so dreadful soft an' sweet! her folks ain't much, an' everybody knows it; everybody knows what old Joe Tenney is—stole all that land that be- longed to his brother; everybody knowed he did it, if they couldn't prove it. I don't think Rose Tenney's got so very much to brag of nohow. ”

“ A girl don't light up like a rainbow when she sees a fellar comin' if there ain't somethin' in the wind. She thinks 'nough of him. Old Joe Tenney's at the bottom of it. He don't think there's quite 'nough money here. I know him. Since he's got a little money himself, everybody else that ain't got it ain't any more than the dirt under his feet. Joe Tenney always thought more of money than anything else in the world. Cheated his own brother for the sake of it. I shouldn't think he'd want to say much."
Elvira still kept her eyes upon her lace ”

“ You can talk all you want to, but it ain't going to do any good. I suppose I ain't showing much spunk about it, and I know it ain't any worse for me than for other folks, and I ain't the first one that couldn't get the one he wanted. ”

“ Looks ain't everything, an' smartness ain't everything. There's plenty of girls that's good 'nough, if they can't tear the airth up or set the river on fire. These dretful smart, handsome folks are just the ones that flax out sometimes. ”