But the minister did not come and Peg had no intention of stopping . `` There 's Maria Dean . '' she resumed . `` I have n't seen Maria for years . I never call there for she never seems to have anything to eat in the house . She was a Clayton and the Claytons never could cook . Maria sorter looks as if she 'd shrunk in the wash , now , do n't she ? And there 's Douglas Nicholson . His brother put rat poison in the family pancakes . Nice little trick that , was n't it ? They say it was by mistake . I hope it WAS a mistake . His wife is all rigged out in silk . Yez would n't think to look at her she was married in cotton -- and mighty thankful to get married in anything , it 's my opinion . There 's Timothy Patterson . He 's the meanest man alive -- meaner 'n Sam Kinnaird even . Timothy pays his children five cents apiece to go without their suppers , and then steals the cents out of their pockets after they 've gone to bed . It 's a fact . And when his old father died he would n't let his wife put his best shirt on him . He said his second best was plenty good to be buried in .
That 's another XXXXX . ''
cotton fact house intention minister mistake opinion silk wash wife