`` I remember one spring evening I met him on the sand-hills . He looked sorter uplifted -- jest like you did , Dr. Blythe , when you brought Mistress Blythe in tonight . I thought of him the minute I seen you . And he told me that he had a sweetheart back home and that she was coming out to him . I was n't more 'n half pleased , ornery young lump of selfishness that I was ; I thought he would n't be as much my friend after she came . But I 'd enough decency not to let him see it . He told me all about her . Her name was Persis Leigh , and she would have come out with him if it had n't been for her old uncle . He was sick , and he 'd looked after her when her parents died and she would n't leave him . And now he was dead and she was coming out to marry John Selwyn . 'T was n't no easy journey for a woman in them days . There were n't no steamers , you must ricollect . '' ` When do you expect her ? ' says I. '' ` She sails on the Royal William , the 20th of June , ' says he , ` and so she should be here by mid-July . I must set Carpenter Johnson to building me a home for her . Her letter come today . I know before I opened it that it had good news for me . I saw her a few nights ago . ' `` I did n't understand him , and then he explained -- though I did n't understand THAT much better . He said he had a gift -- or a curse .
Them was his words , Mistress XXXXX -- a gift or a curse .
Blythe Johnson Leigh Selwyn William ago days evening sand-hills sorter