Erastus just about worshiped her. I used to know him pretty well.
He lived next door to me, and we went to school together. Folks
used to say he was waitin' on me, but he wa'n't. I never thought
he was except once or twice when he said things that some girls
might have suspected meant somethin'. That was before Luella came
here to teach the district school. It was funny how she came to
get it, for folks said she hadn't any education, and that one of
the big girls, Lottie Henderson, used to do all the teachin' for
her, while she sat back and did embroidery work on a cambric
pocket-handkerchief. Lottie Henderson was a real smart girl, a
splendid scholar, and she just set her eyes by Luella, as all the
girls did. Lottie would have made a real smart woman, but she died
when Luella had been here about a year--just faded away and died:
nobody knew what ailed her. She dragged herself to that
schoolhouse and helped Luella teach till the very last minute. The
committee all knew how Luella didn't do much of the work herself,
but they winked at it. It wa'n't long after Lottie died that
Erastus married her. I always thought he hurried it up because she
wa'n't fit to teach.
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