Whack comes the thimble, and the child snatches her claws out of the sugar-bowl without fooling around any. Just then the nigger woman steps on to the passage, and says:

     "Missus, dey's a sheet gone."

     "A SHEET gone! Well, for the land's sake!"

     "I'll stop up them holes to-day," says Uncle Silas, looking sorrowful.

     "Oh, DO shet up!--s'pose the rats took the SHEET? WHERE'S it gone, Lize?"

     "Clah to goodness I hain't no notion, Miss' Sally. She wuz on de clo'sline yistiddy, but she done gone: she ain' dah no mo' now."

     "I reckon the world IS coming to an end. I NEVER see the beat of it in all my born days. A shirt, and a sheet, and a spoon, and six can--"

     "Missus," comes a young yaller wench, "dey's a brass cannelstick miss'n."

     "Cler out from here, you hussy, er I'll take a skillet to ye!"