An' she keeps her mouth open a little mite
all the time, jest as if there wa'n't no good draught through,
an' she was a-tryin' to git air. An' 't was me that begun callin'
her 'Feeble Phoebe in school, an' the scholars'll never forgit
it; they'd throw it up to me the whole 'durin' time if I should
go to work an' keep company with her!"
"Mebbe they've forgot by this time," Uncle Bart responded
hopefully; "though 't is an awful resk when you think o'
Companion Pike! Samuel he was baptized and Samuel he continued to
be, "till he married the Widder Bixby from Waterboro. Bein' as
how there wa'n't nothin' partic'ly attractive 'bout him,--though
he was as nice a feller as ever lived,--somebody asked her why
she married him, an' she said her cat hed jest died an' she
wanted a companion. The boys never let go o' that story! Samuel
Pike he ceased to be thirty year ago, an' Companion Pike he's
remained up to this instant minute!"
"He ain't lived up to his name much," remarked Cephas. "He's to
home for his meals, but I guess his wife never sees him between
times."
"If the cat hed lived mebbe she'd 'a' been better comp'ny on the
whole," chuckled Uncle Bart. "Companion was allers kind o' dreamy
an' absent-minded from a boy.
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