Chapter X

Mrs. McDuffy goes to Church every Sunday and always shouts and tells her “determination.” Her husband always sits in the back row and beats her as soon as they get home. He says there’s no sense in her shouting, as big a devil as she is. She just does it to slur him. Elijah Moseley asked her why she didn’t stop shouting, seeing she always got a beating about it. She says she can’t “squinch the sperrit.” Then Elijah asked Mr. McDuffy to stop beating her, seeing that she was going to shout anyway. He answered that she just did it for spite and that his fist was just as hard as her head. He could last just as long as she. So the village let the matter rest.