ay of seating himself before the well-endowed spinster,
with a large cambric pocket-handkerchief upon his knee, a frequent tear
meandering down his florid countenance, and volcanic sighs agitating his
capacious waistcoat as he poured his woes into her ear. Prue had been
deeply touched by these moist appeals, and was not much surprised when
the reverend gentleman went ponderously down upon his knee before her in
the good old-fashioned style which frequent use had endeared to him,
murmuring with an appropriate quotation and a subterranean sob--

"Miss Yule, 'a good wife is a crown to her husband;' be such an one to
me, unworthy as I am, and a mother to my bereaved babes, who suffer for
a tender woman's care."

She merely upset her sewing-table with an appropriate start, but
speedily recovered, and with a maidenly blush murmured in return--

"Dear me, how very unexpected! pray speak to papa,--oh, rise, I beg."

"Call me Gamaliel, and I obey!" gasped the stout lover, divided between
rapture and doubts of his ability to perform the feat alone.

"Gamaliel," sighed Prue, surrendering her hand.

"My Prudence, blessed among women!" responded the blissful Bliss. And
having saluted the fair member, allowed it to help him rise; when, after
a few decorous endearments, he departed to papa, and the bride elect
rushed up to Sylvia with the incoherent announcement--

"My dearest child, I have accepted him! It was such a surprise, though
so touchingly done. I was positively mortified; Maria had swept the room
so ill, his knees were white with lint, and I'm a very happy woman,
bless you, love!"

"Sit down, and tell me all about it," cried her sister. "Don't try to
sew, but cry if you like, and let me pet you, for indeed I am rejoiced."

But Prue preferred to rock violently, and boggle down a seam as the best
quietus for her fluttered nerves, while she told her romance, received
congratulations, and settled a few objections made by Sylvia, who tried
to play the prudent matron.

"I am afraid he is too old for you, my dear."

"Just the age; a man should always be ten years older than his wife. A
woman of thirty-five is in the prime of life, and if she hasn't arrived
at years of discretion then, she never will. Shall I wear pearl-colored
silk and a white bonnet, or just a very handsome travelling dress?"

"Whichever you like. But, Prue, isn't he rather stout, I won't say
corpulent?"

"Sylvia, how can you! Because papa is a shado