was goin' to Becky Snow's weddin'--"

"Trees 'long it! There ain't nothin' BUT trees for two square miles
around these diggin's. Git dap, you! I'll take the right-hand road. I
think that's the way."

"Well, so do I; but, as I say, I ain't sure. You needn't be so cross and
unlikely, whether 'tis or 'tain't."

If the main road had been dark, the branch road was darker, and the
branches of the trees slapped and scratched the sides of the carryall.
Caleb's whole attention was given to his driving, and he said nothing.
Miss Parker at length broke the dismal silence.

"Caleb," she said, "what time had we ought to get to Bayport?"

"About four o'clock, I should think. We'll drive 'round till about seven
o'clock, and then we'll go and get married. I used to know the Methodist
minister there, and--"

"METHODIST minister! You ain't goin' to a Methodist minister to be
married?"

"I sartin shouldn't go to no one else. I've been goin' to the Methodist
church for over thirty year. You know that well's I do."

"I snum I never thought of it, or you wouldn't have got me this far
without settlin' that question. I was confirmed into the Baptist faith
when I was twelve year old. And you must have known that just as well as
I knew you was a Methodist."

"Well, if you knew I was one you ought to know I'd want a Methodist to
marry me. 'Twas a Methodist married me afore."

"Humph! What do you suppose I care who married you before? I'm the one
that's goin' with you to be married now; and if I was married by anybody
but a Baptist minister I wouldn't feel as if I was married at all."

"Well, I shan't be married by no Baptist."

"No Methodist shall marry ME."

"Now, look here, Hannah--"

"I don't care, Caleb. You ain't done nothin' but contradict me since we
started. I've been settin' up all night, and I'm tired out, and there's
a draft comin' in 'round these plaguy curtains right on the back of
my neck. I'll get cold and die and you'll have a funeral on your hands
instead of a weddin'. And I don't know's I'd care much," desperately.

Caleb choked down his own irritation.

"There, there, Hannah," he said, "don't talk about dyin' when you're
just gettin' ready to live. We won't fret about the minister business.
If worst comes to worst I'll give in to a Baptist, I suppose. One reason
I did figger on goin' to a Methodist was that, I bein' of that faith, I
thought maybe he'd do the job a little cheaper for us."

"Cheaper? What do