The Mornin'-Glory Girl

								

out. Some of the more conservative members of the party began to think
of home. Among these was Ebenezer Wopp who had not danced since the
opening set. He had sat for some hours in a comatose condition, except
when he was aroused for a few moments by a nudge or pinch administered
by his energetic wife.
“What’s the use of goin’ to a dance and settin’ sleepin’ like one of
them spinxes, Ebenezer?” she expostulated as she roused him from his
slumbers. The good lady herself had danced almost incessantly until
her face had taken on the hue of a ripe pippin.
The sun rose over the hills and his presence could be ignored no
longer. As the Wopp family were driving silently home in the chilly
morning, Moses, growing reminiscent, remarked with a yawn:
“Anyhow, Mar, that fust punkin pie Par got was a howlin’ success.”

CHAPTER VI.
AN EVENING IN THE WOPP PARLOR.

The broad shaft of sunlight that flooded the dining-room where Nell
Gordon sat was suddenly darkened. Looking up she saw the tall straight
figure of Howard Eliot at the doorway.
“Lan’ sakes, here’s friend neighbor,” exclaimed Mrs. Wopp entering the
room from the kitchen, “yer jist in time to help this here pore
overworked teacher with some papers she brung home from the school.”
“P’raps I’ll hinder more than help,” Howard answered, grasping Mrs.
Wopp’s outstretched hand and looking questioningly at Nell.
“The work I am at now Howard, requires mostly a sense of humor. Just
look at this and ask yourself how I manage to keep my face straight
sometimes at school.” Howard took the paper handed to him and had
hardly read a line before his risibility was tickled.
Moses and Betty, hearing what promised to add spice to their evening,
quickly entered the room. Mrs. Wopp who always had to know the joke,
conspired at once to get rid of the youngsters.
“Moses, you git to the barn an’ hunt the aigs, an’ min’ you look in
the haystack; that ole yaller hen has been wantin’ ter set in the nigh
corner of it.”
“I did hunt the aigs,” lied the unhappy Moses who was afraid he was
going to miss something.
“Then where are they?” demanded Mrs. Wopp. “You are as bad as Anias
and Sapphire who was carried out feet foremost. Go when I tell you.
An’ you Betty, go upstairs an’ mend that orful, yawnin’ gap in yer
stockin’. Now we hev got rid of the younguns Howard, will you read out
what you was larfin’ at?”
Thus adjured, Howard began, while Mrs. Wopp leaned back in her chair
rocking vigorously.
“The cow is a useful animal. It has short legs and a cupple horns
sometimes very sharp. Some cows is black some is red, a cow can Ball
very loud. If you hear a cow Ball very loud keep on the other side of
the fense, she may have lost her calf and that is why she is Balling
very loud.
“Cows have a long tale. They wave it and it keeps there back cool,