ve you return me my
letters and picture if you have them. Send them by express
to Miss Jerusha Briggs, at this plais, and I will pay the
charges. I will explain to you why I want them sent to a
difrunt naim than that which I sign. Upon learnin' of Mr.
Elliott's deth I excepted the addresses of Mr. Adams, whose
wife passed away last summer. You may think I was in a
hurry, but widowers always mene bizniss when they go
a-courtin', as you will know if ever you was a widower, and he
had two little girls who needed a mother's care. My husband
is inclined to be jelous, as widowers usually are, and I
don't want him to ever know nothin' about my letters to Mr.
Elliott, and him havin' my picture. I am goin' to ask you to
help me, as a gentleman and a Christian, and to keep this
confidential.

"Very respectfully,

"Mrs. Benj. F. Adams."

They all listened eagerly to the reading of the letter, and when it was
finished looked for Shorty. But he had gone outside, where there was
more air.

[Illustration: SHORTY WENT OUTSIDE WHERE THERE WAS MORE AIR. 101]

CHAPTER VIII. SI IS PROMOTED

ANNABEL APPRISED OF IT--SHORTY MEETS JERUSHA.

ANNABEL came in just as the reading of the letter was finished and
her arrival caused a commotion in the family, as it always did, which
momentarily distracted attention from the missive and Shorty's absence.
She and the mother and daughters had to exchange kisses and news about
the health of both families. Then she had to give a filial kiss to the
Deacon, who had already begun to assume paternal airs toward her, and
finally she got around to Si. Neither of them had yet got to the point
of "kissing before folks," and had to be content with furtive
squeezing of hands. Si's heart was aching to have Annabel read Capt.
McGillicuddy's letter, yet such was his shame-faced modesty that not for
the world would he have alluded to it before the family. If he had been
alone with her, he might have slipped the letter unopened into her hand,
with a shy request for her to read it, but so sternly was the Deacon and
his family set against anything like "vainglory" and "self-praise"
that he could not bring himself to mention that such a letter had been
received. At last, when full particulars had been given about the spread
of measles and whooping-cough, who was to preach and who to be baptized
at the coming quarterly meeting, Ma