Captain Jim smiled delightedly . `` Miss Cornelia Bryant . She 'll likely be over to see you soon , seeing you 're Presbyterians . If you were Methodists she would n't come at all . Cornelia has a holy horror of Methodists . '' `` She 's quite a character , '' chuckled Doctor Dave . `` A most inveterate man-hater ! '' `` Sour grapes ? '' queried Gilbert , laughing . `` No , 't is n't sour grapes , '' answered Captain Jim seriously . `` Cornelia could have had her pick when she was young . Even yet she 's only to say the word to see the old widowers jump . She jest seems to have been born with a sort of chronic spite agin men and Methodists . She 's got the bitterest tongue and the kindest heart in Four Winds . Wherever there 's any trouble , that woman is there , doing everything to help in the tenderest way . She never says a harsh word about another woman , and if she likes to card us poor scalawags of men down I reckon our tough old hides can stand it . '' `` She always speaks well of you , Captain Jim , '' said Mrs. Doctor . `` Yes , I 'm afraid so . I do n't half like it . It makes me feel as if there must be something sorter unnateral about me . ''
CHAPTER 7 THE SCHOOLMASTER 'S BRIDE `` Who was the first bride who came to this house , Captain XXXXX ? ''
't Bryant Dave Doctor Gilbert Jim Methodists Presbyterians scalawags widowers