`` Well , as to this God-matter , '' said Mary stubbornly , `` since you and I ca n't settle it , there ai n't no use in talking more about it until we 've a chanct to find out the rights of it . I 'll do the best I can alone till then . '' `` If mother was alive she could tell us everything , '' said Una with a sigh . `` I wisht she was alive , '' said Mary . `` I do n't know what 's going to become of you youngsters when I 'm gone . Anyhow , DO try and keep the house a little tidy . The way people talks about it is scandalous . And the first thing you know your father will be getting married again and then your noses will be out of joint . '' Una was startled . The idea of her father marrying again had never presented itself to her before . She did not like it and she lay silent under the chill of it . `` Stepmothers are AWFUL creatures , '' Mary went on . `` I could make your blood run cold if I was to tell you all I know about 'em . The Wilson kids across the road from Wiley 's had a stepmother . She was just as bad to 'em as Mrs. Wiley was to me . It 'll be awful if you get a stepmother . '' `` I 'm sure we wo n't , '' said Una tremulously . `` Father wo n't marry anybody else . '' `` He 'll be hounded into it , I expect , '' said Mary darkly . `` All the old maids in the settlement are after him .
There 's no being up XXXXX them .
about across after as from if into on till to