erself up, as if
on exhibition.

"Certainly," said John Miles, considerably astonished.

"I want to ask you a few questions."

"Go ahead, Mrs. Brown."

"Am I hump-backed?"

"Certainly not. Who said you were?"

"Just attend to my questions, if you please, stranger. Am I
squint-eyed?"

"Mrs. Brown must be crazy," thought Miles. However, he answered in the
negative.

"Am I as homely as a hedge-fence?" pursued the widow.

"Has anybody been calling you so? If so, tell me who it is."

"Never you mind, stranger. Am I old and wrinkled?"

"Certainly she's out of her mind," thought Miles. "I must humor her."

"I think you are a very good-looking woman," he said, soothingly.

"No, I'm not," said the strong-minded lady, "but at the same time I
ain't a scarecrow."

"Certainly not."

"Don't talk too much, stranger. I expect you're surprised at my
questions, but I'll come to the p'int at once. I'm tired of livin' here
alone. I didn't think I'd miss Brown so much. He wasn't any great shakes
of a man, but he was better than nothing. He was company for me, Brown
was, in the long evenin's, and I miss him. I've made up my mind to take
on somebody in his place, and I reckon I'd like to engage you, stranger.
Will you marry me?"

Mrs. Brown did not blush when she asked this extraordinary question. She
was entirely self-possessed, and could not have been cooler, if she had
been transacting an ordinary piece of business.

John Miles had never before received a proposal of marriage. He felt as
awkward and confused as a young girl, and began to hesitate and
stammer.

"Really, Mrs. Brown," he began, "you have taken me by surprise."

"I expect I have," said the widow, "but I'll give you time to think it
over. Brown left me I pretty comfortable, though I did more to get the
property together than he. You wouldn't think it, perhaps, but I've got
five thousand dollars in gold hid away somewheres near, and there's a
claim not far away, that belongs to me, and will pay for workin'."

"I am glad you are so well off, Mrs. Brown," said Miles.

"If you marry me," continued the widow, "you can work that claim. You're
a strong, able-bodied man, and a year from now, if you want to, we'll go
to the city, and settle down. I'm older than you; but a matter of a few
years don't make much difference. You were robbed, you told me?"

"Yes, of all that I had."

"How much was it?"

"About two hundred dollars."

"That ain't much."

"It