On the Heights by Berthold Auerbach

The grandmother was out of doors, arranging a bed in the covered wagon. She told her brother to drive carefully, and not crack his whip so often; for Uncle Peter, known as the little pitchman, was so elated at the idea of having a whip and two horses under his charge, that he cracked his whip incessantly.

"The stranger's puttings on airs, I think. Who is she, anyhow? " asked the little pitchman, taking the thong between his teeth, as if he could only thus prevent himself from cracking the whip.