The Grinder Papers — page 66: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE GRINDER PAPERS. 61 over lasses. ‘Hymn-Book.’ Stick that up too. ‘Bacon.’ Reckon that’s a cook-book. Take keero’ that. ‘Shakespeare.’ A nasty, wicked play-book. Pitch it on the fire. ‘Pope.’ Mebbe you're a Catholic, Biddy, but / ain't; so burn anything relatin’ to the Pope. ‘Volney’s Ruins.’ That's history, “or geography; keep it for the children. These here is verses. Burn ‘em. Lot o novels. Burn them. Werre beginnin’ to hey more room. Newspapers. Them that’s clean keep for dresser shelves. What's this? ‘Byron’s Poems.’ They'd pison the air; and the kiver is gone, too. Pitch that in. Nice clean book—‘Pilgrim’s Progress’—put that on the shelf. ‘New Tes- tament. Dear me! there’s a fine-tooth comb betwixt the leaves !” And so I went on, and when all the books but about a dozen was burnt, and the dirty scribbled paper, too, I had the floor scrubbed and the windy’s washed, and sot the clean paper on the desk, with the nicest inkstand aside of it, and darkened it up, and went on to her bedroom. Biddy grumbled the heft o’ the time, but she was afeard to go off, because her wages was due, and she thought she mighn’t get ‘em in that case. “Twas half-past six when we'd got through, and then pork and beans was ready and the table sot, and all the children dressed clean, at their cipherin’, for there warn’t no catechises in the house. | ‘They'll feel thankful for once,” sez I. ‘Just see if they will,” sez the girl, with a grin, and at that minute in walks Miss Kittikins. cComicbooks.co — - - ; \ pote > AS. | 2. - ~ P = oe She 42 25 oS * . t+ cee - yv ~~“ th ee ‘ é4 w be a aad a ‘o” ©