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“Won’t you recite some of your poetry to me, Cousin Jimmy?” asked Emily eagerly.

“When the spirit moves me I will. It’s no use to ask me when the spirit don’t move me.”

“But how am I to know when the spirit moves you, Cousin Jimmy?”

“I’ll begin of my own accord to recite my compositions. But I’ll tell you this—the spirit generally moves me when I’m boiling the pigs’ potatoes in the fall. Remember that and be around.”

“Why don’t you write your poetry down?”

“Paper’s too scarce at New Moon. Elizabeth has some pet economies and writing paper of any kind is one of them.”

“But haven’t you any money of your own, Cousin Jimmy?”

“Oh, Elizabeth pays me good wages. But she puts all my money in the bank and just doles out a few dollars to me once in a while. She says I’m not fit to be trusted with money. When I came here to work for her she paid me my wages at the end of the month and I started for Shrewsbury to put it in the bank. Met a tramp on the road—a poor, forlorn creature without a cent. I gave him the money. Why not? I had a good home and a steady job and clothes enough to do me for years. I s’pose it was the foolishest thing I ever did—and the nicest. But Elizabeth never got over it. She’s managed my money ever since. But come you now, and I’ll show you my garden before I have to go and sow turnips.”