en I suspicioned they did n't like my funnin', I sez:
"Bill," sez I, "an' Marthy, there 's only one name I 'd love above all
the rest to call your little lambkin, an' that's the dearest name on
earth to me--the name uv Lizzie, my wife!"

That jest suited 'em to a T, an' always after that she wuz called
leetle Lizzie, an' it sot on her, that name did, like _it_ was made for
_her_, an' _she_ for _it_. We made it up then--perhaps more in fun
than anything else--that when the children growed up, Cyrus an' leetle
Lizzie, they should get marr'd together, an' have both the farms an' be
happy, an' be a blessin' to us all in our old age. We made it up in
fun, perhaps, but down in our hearts it wuz our prayer jest the same,
and God heard the prayer an' granted it to be so.

They played together, they lived together; together they tended
deestrick school an' went huckleberryin'; there wuz huskin's an'
spellin' bees an' choir meetin's an' skatin' an' slidin' down-hill--oh,
the happy times uv youth! an' all those times our boy Cyrus an' their
leetle Lizzie went lovin'ly together!

What made me start so--what made me ask of Bill one time: "Are we
a-gettin' old, Bill?" that wuz the Thanksgivin' night when, as we set
round the fire in Bill's front-room, Cyrus come to us, holdin' leetle
Lizzie by the hand, an' they asked us could they get marr'd come next
Thanksgivin' time? Why, it seemed only yesterday that they wuz chicks
together! God! how swift the years go by when they are happy years!

"Reuben," sez Bill to me, "le's go down' cellar and draw a pitcher uv
cider!"

You see that, bein' men, it wuz n't for us to make a show uv ourselves.
Marty an' Lizzie just hugged each other an' laughed an' cried--they wuz
so glad! Then they hugged Cyrus an' leetle Lizzie; and talk and laff?
Well, it did beat all how them women folks did talk and laugh, all at
one time! Cyrus laffed, too; an' then he said he reckoned he 'd go out
an' throw some fodder in to the steers, and Bill an' I--well, _we_ went
down-cellar to draw that pitcher uv cider.

It ain't for me to tell now uv the meller sweetness uv their courtin'
time; I could n't do it if I tried. Oh, how we loved 'em both! Yet,
once in the early summer-time, our boy Cyrus he come to me an' said:
"Father, I want you to let me go away for a spell."

"Cyrus, my boy! Go away?"

"Yes, father; President Linkern has called for soldiers; father, you
have always taught me to obey the voice