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country. He hasn't had any too much time -- and besides he mightn't a got the

letter at all, you know." ssssssssss

"Too bad, too bad he couldn't a lived to see his brothers, poor soul. You

going to Orleans, you say?" ssssssssss

"Yes, but that ain't only a part of it. I'm going in a ship, next Wednesday,

for Ryo Janeero, where my uncle lives." ssssssssss

"It's a pretty long journey. But it'll be lovely; I wisht I was agoing. Is

Mary Jane the oldest? How old is the others?"

"Mary Jane's nineteen, Susan's fifteen, and Joanna's about fourteen -- that's

the one that gives herself to good works and has a hare-lip."

"Poor things! to be left alone in the cold world so."

"Well, they could be worse off. Old Peter had friends, and they ain't going

to let them come to no harm. There's Hobson, the Babtis' preacher; and

Deacon Lot Hovey, and Ben Rucker, and Abner Shackleford, and Levi Bell,

the lawyer; and Dr. Robinson, and their wives, and the widow Bartley, and --

well, there's a lot of them; but these are the ones that Peter was thickest with,

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