he asked
her advice, she replied:

"I don't devize nuffin. Yer granpaw Thompson uster say thar neber wus no
use in devizin' nobody, kase a wise man didn't need no device, an' a
fool wouldn't take no device. But ef I wus yer, I'd jis go ter Mandy an'
tell her how it happen."

Marley saw that it must come to this, and wisely decided that the sooner
it was done the better. So he began to hover around Mandy, lying about
on the grass, sitting on stumps and logs near her, and sauntering back
and forth. Finally, he saw her standing alone, her girl mate having run
off after a yellow butterfly. He walked in a dizzy kind of way to her
side. He said, "Howdy, Mandy?" and she answered, "Howdy?" looking at him
with a question in her look.

Marley knew she was wondering what he had come for, and that he was now
committed to some sort of explanation. He blushed and blushed, till it
seemed to him he never could stop blushing.

"Don't be mad at me," he said, pleadingly.

"I'm not mad at you," she said.

"But you will be when I tell you. I didn't go to do it. I wouldn't have
done it for the world, but I thought it was a wild deer and shot it."

"Oh! you're talkin' 'bout my deer; you shot my deer?"

"Yes," said Marley, hoarsely. He thought he was going to choke to death.
"They are barbecuing it now. I never was so sorry in my life. I'll pay
for it, or I'll get you another, or I'll do anything in the world you
tell me to."

Mandy burst out laughing, and said: "How absurd to talk so about that
deer. But you wouldn't do anything I tell you. You wouldn't go up on the
rostrum there, an' stan' on your head."

"Yes, I would, if it would keep you from being mad at me," said Marley.

"Well, I'm not, mad at you. I don't care much about that deer; he used
to scare me nearly to death, and Pa was going to bring him to the
barbecue. You've brought him instead of Pa--that's all the difference. I
shouldn't have thought you'd have told about it when you felt so badly.
I reckon you're tolerbul plucky. Why don't you ever come over to see
brother Bob."

"Don't know; 'cause he never asked me to, I reckon."

"I know he'd like to have you. Look yere! He's got some Roman candles
he's goin' to fire off to-night; so you stop as you go home this
evening. It's right on your way. Can't you?"

"I reckon so," answered Marley, his heart throbbing with pleasure.

"Look here, Marley," Mandy added, suddenly. "Don't say anything about
that deer, and I wont