"Of course him dying left old Mrs. Pelley alone in a big house, and her
being pretty feeble, she felt that Harry and Ivy ought to come and live
with her. Well,--Ivy went--but she vowed that there were two things
she would do, mother-in-law or no mother-in-law. She said she'd put as
many onions in her hamburger steak and Irish stew as she pleased--you
know Mrs. Pelley can't stand onions--and she'd have a fire in the
fireplace as often as the fancy struck her. Everybody thought there'd
be an awful state of things--but land--now that Mrs. Pelley has got
used to the open fire you can't drive her away from it with a stick and
she don't seem to bother her head about Ivy's cooking and last week she
actually ate three helpings of hamburger steak that Ivy said was just
reeking with onions.
"A body's never too old to learn, I suppose. There's Henry Rawlins
suddenly took the notion to quit smoking. Ettie'd been at him for
twenty-five years with twenty good reasons to quit, but no. And all of
a sudden--when Ettie's give up hope and not mentioned it for a couple
of months--he up and quits and won't even tell why. Ettie's
worried--says he's eating himself out of house and home and wants to
sleep about twenty-four hours a day.
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