the county paper and gossip a
little about the news, thus making a beginning in putting him and
herself en rapport with other interests than those which centered in
the farm. In brief, she had an active, intelligent mind and a
companionable nature. Her boundless gratitude for her home, which
daily grew more homelike, led her to employ all her tact in adding to
his enjoyment. Yet so fine was her tact that her manner was a simple
embodiment of good will, and he was made to feel that it was nothing
more.

While all was passing so genially and satisfactorily to Holcroft, it
may well be supposed that his conduct was not at all to the mind of his
neighbors. News, especially during the busy spring season, permeates a
country neighborhood slowly. The fact of his marriage had soon become
known, and eventually, through Justice Harkins, the circumstances
relating to it and something of Alida's previous history, in a garbled
form, came to be discussed at rural firesides. The majority of the men
laughed and shrugged their shoulders, implying it was none of their
business, but not a few, among whom was Lemuel Weeks, held up their
hands and spoke of the event in terms of the severest reprehension.
Many of the farmers' wives and their maiden sisters were quite as much
scandalized as Mrs. Watterly had been that an unknown woman, of whom
strange stories were told, should have been brought into the community
from the poorhouse, "and after such a heathenish marriage, too," they
said. It was irregular, unprecedented, and therefore utterly wrong and
subversive of the morals of the town.

They longed to ostracize poor Alida, yet saw no chance of doing so.
They could only talk, and talk they did, in a way that would have made
her ears tingle had she heard.

The young men and older boys, however, believed that they could do more
than talk. Timothy Weeks had said to a group of his familiars, "Let's
give old Holcroft and his poorhouse bride a skimelton that will let 'em
know what folks think of 'em."

The scheme found favor at once, and Tim Weeks was soon recognized as
organizer and leader of the peculiar style of serenade contemplated.
After his day's work was over, he rode here and there summoning
congenial spirits. The project soon became pretty well known in
several families, but the elder members remained discreetly blind and
deaf, proposing to wink at what was going on, yet take no compromising
part themselves. Lemuel Weeks wi