t I'd jest drop over an' say
'howdy' to Mrs. Bottom."

"Oh, I reckon you caught a glimpse of red through the door," chuckled
Betsey, who was possessed of the belief that it was her Christian duty
to further any match, good or bad, that came under her eye.

"I must be going, so don't hurry your visit," replied Molly, laughing.
"Mrs. Hatch has been in bed for a week and I'm on my way to see Judy."

"I'll walk a bit of the road with you if you ain't any serious
objection," remarked the lover, preparing to accompany her.

"Oh, no, none in the world," she replied demurely, "you may carry my
cough syrup."

"It ain't for yourself, I hope?" he inquired, with a look of alarm.

"No, for grandfather. He caught cold staying in the barn with the red
cow."

"Well, I'm glad 'taint for you--I don't like a weak-chested woman."

She looked up smiling as they passed the store into the sunken road
which led in the direction of Solomon Hatch's cottage.

"I did see a speck of red through the crack," he confessed after a
minute, as if he were unburdening his conscience of a crime.

"You mean you saw my cap or jacket--or maybe my gloves?"

"It was yo' cap, an' so I came in. I hope you have no particular
objection?" His face had flushed to a violent crimson and in his throat
his Adam's apple worked rapidly up and down between the high points of
his collar. "I mean," he stammered presently, "that I wouldn't have gone
in if I hadn't seen that bit of red through the do'. I suppose I had
better tell you, that I've been thinking a great deal about you in the
evening when my day's work is over."

"I'm glad I don't interfere with your farming."

"That would be a pity, wouldn't it? Do you ever think of me, I wonder,
at the same time?" he inquired sentimentally.

"I can't tell because I don't know just what that time is, you see."

"Well, along after supper generally--particularly if ma has made
buckwheat cakes an' I've eaten a hearty meal an' feel kind of cosy an'
comfortable when I set down by the fire an' there's nothin' special to
do."

"But you see I don't like buckwheat cakes, and I've always something
'special' to do at that hour."

"Ah, you don't mean it, do you--about not liking buckwheat cakes? As
for the rest, bein' a woman, I reckon you would have the washin' up to
attend to just at that time. I don't like a woman that sets around idle
after supper--an' I'm glad you're one to be brisk an' busy about the
house, though I'm