Well, she told me what it was (pulverised gypsum), and said, "It would
keep them sweet and fresh for three months at least, and she didn't
know but more."
So I put my hand away down into the barrel and pulled out two, and
that layer she said was three months old. I held them to the light,
and they were as clear as if laid yesterday.
"Boil them," sais I, and she did so; and I must say it was a wrinkle I
didn't expect to pick up at such a place as that, for nothing could be
fresher.
"Here is a dollar," said I, "for that receipt, for it's worth knowing,
I can tell you."
"Now," thinks I, as I took my seat again, "I will try and see if this
French gall can talk English." I asked her, but she shook her head.
So to prove her, sais I, "Doctor, ain't she a beauty, that? See what
lovely eyes she has, and magnificent hair! Oh, if she was well got up,
and fashionably dressed, wouldn't she be a sneezer? What beautiful
little hands and feet she has! I wonder if she would marry me, seein'
I am an orthodox man."
Well, she never moved a muscle; she kept her eyes fixed on her work,
and there wasn't the leastest mite of a smile on her face. I kinder
sorter thought her head was rather more stationary, if anything, as if
she was listening, and her eyes more fixed, as if she was all
attention; but she had dropped a stitch in her knitting, and was
taking of it up, so perhaps I might be mistaken.
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