es, 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 is so small, and
you've chocked it so full of furniture. Right down nice furniture it
is, too; but there's so much of it. I'm afraid the minister'll have to
stand out in the front yard."

"The house'll do for this time," replied Mrs. Kinzer. "There 'll be
room enough for everybody. What puzzles me is Dab."

"What about Dab?" asked Ham.

"Can't find a thing to fit him," said Dab's mother. "Seems as if he
were all odd sizes, from head to foot."

"Fit him!" exclaimed Ham. "Oh, you mean ready-made goods! Of course
you can't. He'll have to be measured by a tailor, and have his new
suit built for him."

"Such extravagance!" emphatically remarked Mrs. Kinzer.

"Not for rich people like you, and for a wedding," replied Ham; "and
Dab's a growing boy. Where is he now? I'm going to the village, and
I'll take him right along with me."

T