ben Granger come home, a
full-feathered-out minister, he seemed to strike her fancy as he never
had before, though they were always good friends from children. He had
light hair and blue eyes and fair skin (his business being under cover
kep' him bleached out), and he and Lovey made the prettiest couple you
ever see; for she was dark complected, and her cheeks no otherways than
scarlit the whole durin' time. She had a change of heart that winter; in
fact she had two of 'em, for she changed hers for Reuben's, and found a
hope at the same time. 'T was a good honest conversion, too, though she
did say to me she was afraid that if Reuben hadn't taught her what love
was or might be, she 'd never have found out enough about it to love God
as she 'd ought to.
"There, I've begun both roses, and hers is 'bout finished. I sha'n't
have more 'n enough white alapaca. It's lucky the moths spared one
breadth of the wedding dresses; we was married on the same day, you
know, and dressed just alike. Jot wa'n't quite ready to be married, for
he wa'n't any more forehanded 'bout that than he was 'bout other things;
but I told him Lovey and I had kept up with each other from the start,
and he 'd got to fall into line or drop out o' the percession.--Now what
next?"
"Wasn't there anybody at the wedding but you and Lovice?" asked
Priscilla, with an amused smile.
"Land, yes! The meeting-house was cram jam full. Oh, to be sure! I know
what you 're driving at! Well, I have to laugh to think I should have
forgot the husbands! They'll have to be worked into the story, certain;
but it'll be consid'able of a chore, for I can't make flowers out of
coat and pants stuff, and there ain't any more flowers on this branch
anyway."
Diadema sat for a few minutes in rapt thought, and then made a sudden
inspired dash upstairs, where Miss Hollis presently heard her rummaging
in an old chest. She soon came down, triumphant.
"Wa'n't it a providence I saved Jot's and Reuben's wedding ties! And
here they are,--one yellow and green mixed, and one brown. Do you know
what I'm going to do? I'm going to draw in a butterfly hovering over
them two roses, and make it out of the neckties,--green with brown
spots. That'll bring in the husbands; and land! I wouldn't have either
of 'em know it for the world. I'll take a pattern of that lunar moth you
pinned on the curtain yesterday."
Miss Hollis smiled in spite of herself. "You have some very ingenious
ideas and so
|