is the mustache that I used to long for and which wouldn't come,"
she added with a smile.

"Is there anything else that I seem to need?" Harry asked. "I could grow
whiskers now."

"Don't," she answered. "The great need of the West is shears and razors
and a law to compel their use. There can be little romance in the midst
of so much hair."

"I shall be careful not to offend you," Harry laughed. "I want to marry
you as soon as possible. I've been looking forward to that since I was
sixteen."

"I don't hear of anything but love and marriage," said Samson. "We've
been rassling down at our house to keep Josiah from running off and
getting married. He's engaged already."

"Engaged! To whom?" Harry asked.

"To Annabel Brimstead. She's a little older than he is. She laughed at
him and promised to marry him as soon as he was nominated for President
by all his friends. She would now vote for him herself. He has become a
good athlete and the best scholar in school. He has every boy and girl in
the village working for him evenings and Saturdays."

"What are they doing?" Harry asked.

"Making those newfangled things they call lucifers. You can build a fire
in a second with 'em. They cut splinters out of soft wood, dip their ends
in brimstone--which Joe learned how to make--and put them in a hot oven
until the brimstone is baked. Then a scratch will bring a flame. Joe puts
them up in bundles and sells them to the merchants and calls them lucifer
matches. He has invented a machine that will cut and dip a thousand
splinters an hour. I tell you Annabel is in danger."

He took a lucifer out of his pocket and scratched it on the bottom of his
boot. The party looked with wonder at its flame which quickly consumed
the slender thread of pine in his fingers.

"I have always thought that Joe would make a whale of a man," said Harry.

"We all seem to be threatened with immediate and overwhelming happiness,"
Bim exclaimed.

"The only thing in the way of mine is the national debt that I have
accumulated," Harry remarked.

"I knew he'd think of something," said Bim ruefully. "If I wanted to
abolish the noble institution of marriage I'd make him chairman of the
ways and means committee."

"Harry, your credit is still good with me, and I'm prosperous," Samson
began. "I want you to know that Bim's energy and skill are mostly
responsible for my success. I guess we owe more to your sickness than
you're aware of. If it hadn't been for