ful right to protect you against the slights as you'll be sure
to receive after what's happened, if you don't have a husband to take
care of you."

He paused and waited for her reply; but as she did not speak, he began
again:

"Come, Hannah, my dear, what do you say to our being married o' Sunday?"

She did not answer, and he continued:

"I think as we better had get tied together arter morning service! And
then, you know, I'll take you and the bit of a baby home long o' me,
Hannah. And I'll be a loving husband to you, my girl; and I'll be a
father to the little lad with as good a will as ever I was to my own
orphan brothers and sisters. And I'll break every bone in the skin of
any man that looks askance at him, too! Don't you fear for yourself or
the child. The country side knows me for a peaceable-disposed man; but
it had rather not provoke me for all that, because it knows when I have
a just cause of quarrel, I don't leave my work half done! Come, Hannah,
what do you say, my dear? Shall it be o' Sunday? You won't answer me?
What, crying, my girl, crying! what's that for?"

The tears were streaming from Hannah's eyes. She took up her apron and
buried her face in its folds.

"Now what's all that about?" continued Reuben, in distress; then
suddenly brightening up, he said: "Oh, I know now! You're thinking of
Nancy and Peggy! Don't be afeard, Hannah! They won't do, nor say, nor
even so much as look anything to hurt your feelings! and they had better
not, if they know which side their bread is buttered! I am the master of
my own house, I reckon, poor as it is! And my wife will be the mistress;
and my sisters must keep their proper places! Come, Hannah! come, my
darling, what do you say to me?"' he whispered, putting his arm over her
shoulders, while he tried to draw the apron from her face.

She dropped her apron, lifted her face, looked at him through her
falling tears, and answered:

"This is what I have to say to you, dear, dearest, best loved Reuben! I
feel your goodness in the very depths of my heart; I thank you with all
my soul; I will love you--you only--in silence and in solitude all my
life; I will pray for you daily and nightly; but--" She stopped and
sobbed.

"But--" said Reuben breathlessly.

"I will never carry myself and my dishonor under your honest roof."

Reuben caught his suspended breath with a sharp gasp and gazed in blank
dismay upon the sobbing woman for a few minutes, and then he said: