tened calmly while she continued:

"I have not lived sixty-odd years for nothing, and I know the signs
pretty well. I've been through the mill myself."

Here Aunt Betsy's voice grew lower in its tone, and Morris looked up
with real interest, while she went on:

"There's Joel Upham--you know Joel--keeps a tin shop now, and seats the
folks in meetin'. He asked me once for my company, and to be smart I
told him 'no,' when all the time I meant 'yes,' thinkin' he would ask
ag'in, but he didn't, and the next I knew he was keepin' company with
Patty Adams, now his wife. I remember I sniveled a little at being taken
at my word, but it served me right for saying one thing when I meant
another. However, it don't matter now. Joel is as clever as the day is
long, but he is a shiftless critter, never splits his kindlin's till
jest bedtime, and Patty is pestered to death for wood, while his snorin'
nights, she says, is awful, and that I never could abide; so, on the
whole, I'm better off than Patty."

Morris laughed a loud, hearty laugh, which did him good, and emboldened
his visitor to say more than she had intended saying:

"You just ask her ag'in. Once ain't nothing at all, and she'll come to.
She likes you; 'tain't that which made her say no. It's some foolish
idea about faithfulness to Wilford, as if he deserved that she should be
faithful. They never orto have had one another--never; and now that he
is well in heaven, as I do suppose he is, it ain't I who hanker for him
to come back. Neither does Katy, and all she needs is a little urging to
tell you yes. So ask her again, will you?"

"I think it very doubtful. Katy knew what she was doing, and meant what
she said," Morris replied; and with the consoling remark that if young
folks would be fools it was none of her business to bother with them,
Aunt Betsy pinned her shawl across her chest, and hunting up both basket
and umbrella, bade Morris good-night, and went back across the fields to
the farmhouse, hearing from Mrs. Lennox that Katy had gone to bed with a
racking headache.

"Just the way I felt when I heard about Joel and Patty," Aunt Betsy said
to herself, and as she remembered what had helped her then, so, fifteen
minutes later, she appeared at Katy's bedside, with a cup of strong sage
tea which she bade Katy swallow, telling her it was good for her
complaint.

To prevent being urged and annoyed, Katy drank the tea, and then without
a question concerning Aunt Bets