for the horses, Alida, and soon be back again. You come and help
me, Jonathan, and keep your dog off, too."

The old man complied with rather poor grace for he would have preferred
to interview the bride, at whom he was staring with all his weak,
watery eyes. Holcroft understood his neighbor's peculiarities too well
to subject his wife to this ordeal, and was bent on dispatching
Jonathan homeward as soon as possible.

"I say, Jim," said the old guardsman, who felt that he was speaking to
the boy he had known for thirty odd years, "where on airth did you pick
up sich a sickly lookin' critter?"

"I didn't pick her up," replied the farmer laughingly. "I married her
fair and square just as you did your wife a hundred years ago, more or
less. Haven't I as good a right to get married as you had?"

"Oh, I aint a-disputin' yer right, but it seems so kind o' suddint that
it's taken what little breath I've left."

"How do you know it's sudden? Did you go around telling everyone how
you were getting on when you were a-courting?"

"Well, I swan! Yer got me. 'Taint so long ago that I disremember we
did it on the sly."

"Well, now, Uncle Jonathan, you've got nothing to say against me for I
didn't marry on the sly, although I've gone on the principle that my
business wasn't everybody's business. When I saw your wife about my
washing and mending I didn't know I was going to be lucky so soon. You
know you can't marry a woman in this country till she's willing. But
tell your wife she shan't lose anything, and the next time I go to town
I'll leave that settin' of eggs she wanted. Now, Jonathan, honor
bright, do you feel able to walk home if I give you fifty cents extra?"

"Why, sartinly! S'pose I'd take yer away on sich a 'casion? My wife
wouldn't let me in if she knowed it."

"Well, you and your wife are good neighbors, and that's more'n I can
say for most people in these parts. Here's the money. Mrs. Holcroft
isn't strong or well enough to talk any tonight. You got yourself a
good supper, didn't you?"

"Yes, yes! Helped myself bount'fully. Good night, and good luck ter
yer. I can't help thinkin' it was kind o' suddint though, and then
she's sich a sickly lookin' critter. Hope yer haven't been taken in,
but then, as you say, the marryin' business, like other kinds o'
business, is a man's own business."

"I hope everyone will take your sensible view, Uncle Jonathan. Good
night."

Chapter XXI.

At Ho