bring another woman int'
this village 'stid o' weedin' one of 'em out as he'd oughter. He ain't
got any more public sperit than a--hedgehog, 'n' never had!"

Almira drew on her mitts excitedly, tied on her shaker, and started for
the door.

"I'm goin' over to Eunice's," she said, "and I'm goin' to take my bottle
of camphire. I shouldn't wonder a mite if I found her in a dead faint on
the kitchen floor. Nobody need tell me she wa'n't buildin' hopes."

"I'll go with you," said the Widow Buzzell. "I'd like to see with my
own eyes how she takes it, 'n' it'll be too late to tell if I wait
till after supper. If she'd ben more open with me 'n' ever asked for my
advice, I could 'a' told her it wa'n't the first time Rube Hobson has
played that trick."

"I'd come too if 't wa'n't milkin' but Jot ain't home from the Centre,
and I've got to do his chores; come in as you go along back, will you?"
asked Diadema.

Hannah Sophia remained behind, promising to meet them at the post-office
and hear the news. As the two women walked down the hill she drew the
old envelope from the Bible and read the wavering words scrawled upon it
in old Mrs. Bascom's rheumatic and uncertain hand,--

_the_ _milikins_ _Mills_ _Teecher._

"Well Lucindy, you do make good use o' your winder," she exclaimed, "but
how you pitched on anything so onlikely as her is more'n I can see."

"Just because 't was onlikely. A man's a great sight likelier to do an
onlikely thing than he is a likely one, when it comes to marryin'. In
the first place, Rube sent his children to school up to the Mills 'stid
of to the brick schoolhouse, though he had to pay a little something to
get 'em taken in to another deestrick. They used to come down at night
with their hands full o' 'ward o' merit cards. Do you s'pose I thought
they got 'em for good behavior, or for knowin' their lessons? Then aunt
Hitty told me some question or other Rube had asked examination day.
Since when has Rube Hobson 'tended examinations, thinks I. And when I
see the girl, a red-and-white paper doll that wouldn't know whether to
move the churn-dasher up 'n' down or round 'n' round, I made up my
mind that bein' a man he'd take her for certain, and not his next-door
neighbor of a sensible age and a house 'n' farm 'n' cow 'n' buggy!"

"Sure enough," agreed Hannah Sophia, "though that don't account for
Eunice's queer actions, 'n' the pa'cels 'n' the fruit cake."

"When I make out a case," observed Mrs.