"Cousin Deborah," interrupted John, seizing her withered hand with a gripe like a smith's vice,--"Cousin Deborah, thou hast acted nobly, and I beg thy pardon once for all. God bless thee!--Dang it," added the honest miller to himself, "I do verily believe that this squabbling has been mainly my fault, and that if I had not been so provoking she would not have been so contrary. Well, she has made us all happy, and we must try to make her happy in return. If we did not, we should deserve to be soused in the fish-pond along with that unhappy chap, Master 'Dolphus. For my part," continued the good yeoman, forming with great earnestness a solemn resolution--"for my part, I've fully made up my mind never to contradict her again, say what she will. No, not if she says black's white! It's contradiction that makes women contrary; it sets their backs up, like. I'll never contradict her again so long as my name's John Stokes."
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Aunt Deborah, by Mary Russell Mitford