had no father or mother that
ever was heard of. We had him from the work'us when he was seven, to
chop mangel wurzel, and here he's been ever since, nigh twelve year. He
was Bill there, and he's Bill here."

"What fun! Fancy having only one name. I wonder what they'll call his
wife?"

"I don't know. Time to talk of that when he can keep one. But now, Dolly
dear, here's your father and Adam Wilson comin' across the field. I want
to see you settled, Dolly. He's a steady young man. He's blue ribbon,
and has money in the Post Office."

"I wish I knew which liked me best," said her daughter glancing from
under her hat-brim at the approaching figures. "That's the one I should
like. But it's all right, mother, and I know how to find out, so don't
you fret yourself any more."

The suitor was a well-grown young fellow in a grey suit, with a straw
hat jauntily ribboned in red and black. He was smoking, but as he
approached he thrust his pipe into his breast-pocket, and came forward
with one hand outstretched, and the other gripping nervously at his
watch-chain.

"Your servant, Mrs. Foster. And how are you, Miss Dolly? Another
fortnight of this and you will be starting on your harvest, I suppose."

"It's bad to say beforehand what you will do in this country," said
Farmer Foster, with an apprehensive glance round the heavens.

"It's all God's doing," remarked his wife piously.

"And He does the best for us, of course. Yet He does seem these last
seasons to have kind of lost His grip over the weather. Well, maybe
it will be made up to us this year. And what did you do at Horndean,
mother?"

The old couple walked in front, and the other dropped behind, the young
man lingering, and taking short steps to increase the distance.

"I say, Dolly," he murmured at last, flushing slightly as he glanced at
her, "I've been speaking to your father about--you know what."

But Dolly didn't know what. She hadn't the slightest idea of what.
She turned her pretty little freckled face up to him and was full of
curiosity upon the point.

Adam Wilson's face flushed to a deeper red. "You know very well," said
he, impatiently, "I spoke to him about marriage."

"Oh, then it's him you want."

"There, that's the way you always go on. It's easy to make fun, but I
tell you that I am in earnest, Dolly. Your father says that he would
have no objection to me in the family. You know that I love you true."

"How do I know that then?"

"I tell