ak
of, nor any blinds. It looks as if somebody'd just built it there, and
then forgot it, and gone oft and left it out of doors."

Dabney's four sisters had all come into the world before him; but he was
as tall as any of them, and was frequently taken by strangers for a good
two years older than he was. It was sometimes very hard for him, a boy
of fifteen, to live up to what was expected of those extra two years.

Mrs. Kinzer still kept him in roundabouts; but they did not seem to
hinder his growth at all, if that was her object in so doing.

There was no such thing, however, as keeping the four girls in
roundabouts of any kind; and, what between them and their mother, the
pleasant and tidy little Kinzer homestead, with its snug parlor and its
cosey bits of rooms and chambers, seemed to nestle away, under the
shadowy elms and sycamores, smaller and smaller with every year that
came.

It was a terribly tight fit for such a family, anyway; and, now that
Dabney was growing at such a rate, there was no telling what they would
all come to. But Mrs. Kinzer came at last to the rescue; and she
summoned her eldest daughter, Miranda, to her aid.

A very notable woman was the widow. When the new railway cut off part of
the old farm, she had split up the slice of land between the iron track
and the village into "town lots," and had sold them all off by the time
the railway company paid her for the "damage" it had done the property.

The whole Kinzer family gained visibly in plumpness that year, except,
perhaps, Dabney.

Of course the condition and requirements of Ham Morris and his big farm,
just over the north fence, had not escaped such a pair of eyes as those
of the widow; and the very size of his great barn of a house finally
settled his fate for him.

A large, quiet, unambitious, but well-brought-up and industrious young
man was Hamilton Morris, and he had not the least idea of the good in
store for him for several months after Mrs. Kinzer decided to marry him
to her daughter Miranda; but all was soon settled. Dab, of course, had
nothing to do with the wedding arrangements, and Ham's share was
somewhat contracted. Not but what he was at the Kinzer house a good
deal; nor did any of the other girls tell Miranda how very much he was
in the way. He could talk, however; and one morning, about a fortnight
before the day appointed, he said to Miranda and her mother,--

"We can't have so very much of a wedding: your house i