ds its end, and I
saw no more that night, being one of the first to leave, on account of my
morning's business. But I learnt the rest of it from those that knew.

'After finishing a particularly warming dance with the changed partners,
as I've mentioned, the two young men looked at one another, and in a
moment or two went out into the porch together.

'"James," says Steve, "what were you thinking of when you were dancing
with my Olive?"

'"Well," said James, "perhaps what you were thinking of when you were
dancing with my Emily."

'"I was thinking," said Steve, with some hesitation, "that I wouldn't
mind changing for good and all!"

'"It was what I was feeling likewise," said James.

'"I willingly agree to it, if you think we could manage it."

'"So do I. But what would the girls say?"

'"'Tis my belief," said Steve, "that they wouldn't particularly object.
Your Emily clung as close to me as if she already belonged to me, dear
girl."

'"And your Olive to me," says James. "I could feel her heart beating
like a clock."

'Well, they agreed to put it to the girls when they were all four walking
home together. And they did so. When they parted that night the
exchange was decided on--all having been done under the hot excitement of
that evening's dancing. Thus it happened that on the following Sunday
morning, when the people were sitting in church with mouths wide open to
hear the names published as they had expected, there was no small
amazement to hear them coupled the wrong way, as it seemed. The
congregation whispered, and thought the parson had made a mistake; till
they discovered that his reading of the names was verily the true way. As
they had decided, so they were married, each one to the other's original
property.

'Well, the two couples lived on for a year or two ordinarily enough, till
the time came when these young people began to grow a little less warm to
their respective spouses, as is the rule of married life; and the two
cousins wondered more and more in their hearts what had made 'em so mad
at the last moment to marry crosswise as they did, when they might have
married straight, as was planned by nature, and as they had fallen in
love. 'Twas Tony's party that had done _it_, plain enough, and they half
wished they had never gone there. James, being a quiet, fireside,
perusing man, felt at times a wide gap between himself and Olive, his
wife, who loved riding and driving and out--door