ook in his eyes, as though he were thinking of things
farther off.

'I do not mind telling you, for I believe you are a motherly woman, Mrs.
Sims, that it is not the first time that the thought of marriage has
crossed my mind' (with solemn hesitation). 'I _have_ thought of it
before; but I have always been hindered from giving it serious
consideration from the belief that no woman would be willing to--ah--to
marry me.'

'Well, of course there's some truth in that, sir,' said his faithful
friend, reluctantly obliged by her conscience to say what she thought.

'Just so, Mrs. Sims,' said the schoolmaster with a patient sigh; 'and
therefore, perhaps it will be unnecessary to discuss the subject
further.'

'Still, there's no accounting for tastes; there might be some found that
would.'

'It would not be necessary to find more than one,' said he, with a quiet
smile.

'No, that's true, sir, which makes the matter rather easier. It's always
been my belief that while there is life there is hope.'

'True, true,' he replied; and then he indulged in a long fit of musing,
which she more than suspected had little to do with the immediate
bearing of the subject on his present case. It was necessary to rouse
him, for there was no time to be lost.

'Of course I don't say that there's many that would have you; there's
girls enough--but laws! they'd all make game of you if you were to go
a-courting to them, and, I take it, courting's not the sort of thing
you're cleverest at.'

'True,' said the schoolmaster again, and again he sighed.

'But now, a good sensible woman, like Miss Blakely, as would keep you
and your house clean and tidy, not to speak of cooking--I make bold to
say you couldn't do better than to get such a one, if she might be so
minded.'

'Who is Miss Blakely?' he asked wonderingly.

'It's her that visits the school so often; you've seen her time and
again.'

'I recollect,' he said; 'but I have not spoken much with her.'

'That's just what I said,' she observed triumphantly. 'You'd be no more
up to courting than cows are up to running races. Now, as to Miss
Blakely, not being as young as some, nor to say good-looking, she might
not stand on the ceremony of much courting; if you just wrote her one
letter, asking her quite modest, and putting in a few remarks about
flowers and that sort of thing, as you could do so well, being clever at
writing, I give it as my opinion it's not unlikely she'd take you out of