I’m reading Hamlin Garland’s “Mrs. Ripley’s Trip” in his “Main-Travelled Roads” collection. There’s a woman in the story (the neighborhood gossip) who repeatedly says, “Says I.” There’s a Twain book with a similar lady - I think she appears toward the end of “Huck Finn,” at the Phelps farm. Does anybody know if Twain and Garland were aware of each using a similar character? I think Twain’s predated Garland’s. Shades of plagiarism? -- B. Clay Shannon