第32章

take caih o' no teef fer HIM!' Yes, suh, an' den when he GIT to be ole man, he say, `What become o' dat young man I yoosta be? Where is dat young man agone to? He 'uz a fool, dat's what --an' _I_ ain' no fool, so he mus' been somebody else, not me; but I do jes' wish I had him hyuh 'bout two minutes--long enough to lam him fer not takin' caih o' my teef fer me!' Yes, suh!''

William laughed; his good humor was restored and he found the conversation of Mr.Genesis attractive.He seated himself upon an upturned bucket near the wheelbarrow, and reverted to a former theme.``Well, I HAVE heard of people getting married even younger 'n you were,'' he said.

``You take India, for instance.Why, they get married in India when they're twelve, and even seven and eight years old.''

``They do not!'' said Jane, promptly.``Their mothers and fathers wouldn't let 'em, an' they wouldn't want to, anyway.''

``I suppose you been to India and know all about it!'' William retorted.``For the matter o'

that, there was a young couple got married in Pennsylvania the other day; the girl was only fifteen, and the man was sixteen.It was in the papers, and their parents consented, and said it was a good thing.Then there was a case in Fall River, Massachusetts, where a young man eighteen years old married a woman forty-one years old; it was in the papers, too.And I heard of another case somewhere in Iowa--a boy began shaving when he was thirteen, and shaved every day for four years, and now he's got a full beard, and he's goin' to get married this year--before he's eighteen years old.Joe Bullitt's got a cousin in Iowa that knows about this case--he knows the girl this fellow with the beard is goin' to marry, and he says he expects it 'll turn out the best thing could have happened.They're goin' to live on a farm.There's hunderds of cases like that, only you don't hear of more'n just a few of 'em.People used to get married at sixteen, seventeen, eighteen--anywhere in there --and never think anything of it at all.Right up to about a hunderd years ago there were more people married at those ages than there were along about twenty-four and twenty-five, the way they are now.For instance, you take Shakespeare--''

William paused.

Mr.Genesis was scraping the hull of the miniature boat with a piece of broken glass, in lieu of sandpaper, but he seemed to be following his young friend's remarks with attention.William had mentioned Shakespeare impulsively, in the ardor of demonstrating his point; however, upon second thought he decided to withdraw the name.

``I mean, you take the olden times,'' he went on; ``hardly anybody got married after they were nineteen or twenty years old, unless they were widowers, because they were all married by that time.And right here in our own county, there were eleven couples married in the last six months under twenty-one years of age.

I've got a friend named Johnnie Watson; his uncle works down at the court-house and told him about it, so it can't be denied.Then there was a case I heard of over in--''

Mr.Genesis uttered a loud chuckle.``My goo'ness!'' he exclaimed.``How you c'leck all'

dem fac's? Lan' name! What puzzlin' ME is how you 'member 'em after you done c'leck 'em.

Ef it uz me I couldn't c'leck 'em in de firs' place, an' ef I could, dey wouldn' be no use to me, 'cause I couldn't rickalect 'em!''

``Well, it isn't so hard,'' said William, ``if you kind of get the hang of it.'' Obviously pleased, he plucked a spear of grass and placed it between his teeth, adding, ``I always did have a pretty good memory.''

``Mamma says you're the most forgetful boy she ever heard of,'' said Jane, calmly.``She says you can't remember anything two minutes.''

William's brow darkened.``Now look here--''

he began, with severity.