'd be arter her. There wa'n't a gal in all
Oldtown that led such a string o' fellers arter her; 'cause, you see,
she'd now and then throw 'em a good word over her shoulder, and then
they 'd all fight who should get it, and she'd jest laugh to see 'em do
it.

"Why, there was Tom Sawin, he was one o' her beaux, and Jim Moss, and
Ike Bacon; and there was a Boston boy, Tom Beacon, he came up from
Cambridge to rusticate with Parson Lothrop; he thought he must have his
say with Miry, but he got pretty well come up with. You see, he thought
'cause he was Boston born that he was kind o' aristocracy, and hed a
right jest to pick and choose 'mong country gals; but the way he got
come up with by Miry was too funny for any thing."

"Do tell us about it," we said, as Sam made an artful pause, designed to
draw forth solicitation.

"Wal, ye see, Tom Beacon he told Ike Bacon about it, and Ike he told me.
'Twas this way. Ye see, there was a quiltin' up to Mis' Cap'n Broad's,
and Tom Beacon he was there; and come to goin' home with the gals, Tom
he cut Ike out, and got Miry all to himself; and 'twas a putty long
piece of a walk from Mis' Cap'n Broad's up past the swamp and the stone
pastur' clear up to old Black Hoss John's.

"Wal, Tom he was in high feather 'cause Miry took him, so that he didn't
reelly know how to behave; and so, as they was walkin' along past Parson
Lothrop's apple-orchard, Tom thought he'd try bein' familiar, and he
undertook to put his arm round Miry. Wal, if she didn't jest take that
little fellow by his two shoulders and whirl him over the fence into
the orchard quicker 'n no time. 'Why,' says Tom, 'the fust I knew I was
lyin' on my back under the apple-trees lookin' up at the stars.' Miry
she jest walked off home and said nothin' to nobody,--it wa'n't her way
to talk much about things; and, if it hedn't ben for Tom Beacon himself,
nobody need 'a' known nothin' about it. Tom was a little fellow, you
see, and 'mazin' good-natured, and one o' the sort that couldn't keep
nothin' to himself; and so he let the cat out o' the bag himself. Wal,
there didn't nobody think the worse o' Miry. When fellers find a gal
won't take saace from no man, they kind o' respect her; and then fellers
allers thinks ef it hed ben _them_, now, things 'd 'a' been different.
That's jest what Jim Moss and Ike Bacon said: they said, why Tom Beacon
was a fool not to know better how to get along with Miry,--_they_ never
had no trouble. The fu