`` You must come often to see us , '' said Anne . `` I wonder if you 'd give that invitation if you knew how likely I 'll be to accept it , '' Captain Jim remarked whimsically . `` Which is another way of saying you wonder if I mean it , '' smiled Anne . `` I do , ` cross my heart , ' as we used to say at school . '' `` Then I 'll come . You 're likely to be pestered with me at any hour . And I 'll be proud to have you drop down and visit me now and then , too . Gin ` rally I have n't anyone to talk to but the First Mate , bless his sociable heart . He 's a mighty good listener , and has forgot more 'n any MacAllister of them all ever knew , but he is n't much of a conversationalist . You 're young and I 'm old , but our souls are about the same age , I reckon . We both belong to the race that knows Joseph , as Cornelia Bryant would say . '' `` The race that knows Joseph ? '' puzzled Anne . `` Yes . Cornelia divides all the folks in the world into two kinds -- the race that knows Joseph and the race that do n't . If a person sorter sees eye to eye with you , and has pretty much the same ideas about things , and the same taste in jokes -- why , then he belongs to the race that knows Joseph . '' `` Oh , I understand , '' exclaimed Anne , light breaking in upon her . `` It 's what I used to call -- and still call in quotation marks ` kindred spirits . ' '' `` Jest so -- jest so , '' agreed Captain Jim . `` We 're it , whatever IT is .
When you come in tonight , Mistress Blythe , I says to myself , says I , ` Yes , she 's of the race that knows XXXXX . '
Anne Bryant Cornelia First Jim Joseph MacAllister conversationalist hour sorter