The contract ’twixt Hannah, God and me,
Was not for one or twenty years, but for eternity.

In the Nasby letters, the rustic narrator often frames personal choices in grand, quasi-religious language to comic effect. This couplet treats marriage as a three-party covenant—between husband, wife, and God—emphasizing permanence (“not for one or twenty years, but for eternity”). Read straight, it affirms a solemn, lifelong (indeed eternal) bond; read in Nasby’s satirical key, the elevated diction (“’twixt,” “contract”) and theological absolutism can also parody moral posturing and self-justification. The line’s force comes from contrasting legalistic phrasing (“contract”) with spiritual stakes (“God,” “eternity”), turning domestic commitment into a cosmic obligation.