it the "sparking bench"? The
hemlock tree would be best. I climbed quieter than a cat, for they
break bark and make an awful scratching with their claws sometimes; my
bare feet were soundless. Up and up I went, slowly, for it was
dreadfully rough. They were not on the sofa. I could see plainly
through the needles. Then I saw the spruce would have been better, for
they were standing in front of the parlour door and Peter had one hand
on the knob. His other arm was around my sister Sally. Breathlessly I
leaned as far as I could, and watched.

"Father said he'd give me the money to buy a half interest, and furnish
a house nicely, if you said 'yes,' Sally," said Peter.

Sally leaned back all pinksome and blushful, and while she laughed at
him she

"Carelessly tossed off a curl
That played on her delicate brow."

exactly like Mary Dow in McGuffey's Third.

"Well, what did I SAY?" she asked.

"Come to think of it, you didn't say anything."

Sally's face was all afire with dancing lights, and she laughed the
gayest little laugh.

"Are you so very sure of that, Peter?" she said.

"I'm not sure of anything," said Peter, "except that I am so happy I
could fly."

"Try it, fool!" I said to myself, deep in my throat.

Sally laughed again, and Peter took his other hand from the door and
put that arm around Sally too, and he drew her to him and kissed her,
the longest, hardest kiss I ever saw. I let go and rolled, tumbled,
slid, and scratched down the hemlock tree, dropped from the last branch
to the ground, and scampered around the house. I reached the
dining-room door when every one was gathering for supper.

"Mother!" I cried. "Mother! Yes! They're engaged! He's kissing her,
mother! Yes, Lucy, they're engaged!"

I rushed in to tell all of them what they would be glad to know, and if
there didn't stand Peter and Sally! How they ever got through that
door, and across the sitting-room before me, I don't understand. Sally
made a dive at me, and I was so astonished I forgot to run, so she
caught me. She started for the wood house with me, and mother
followed. Sally turned at the door and she was the whitest of anything
you ever saw.

"This is my affair," she said. "I'll attend to this young lady."

"Very well," said mother, and as I live she turned and left me to my
sad fate, as it says in a story book we have. I wish when people are
going to punish me, they'd take a switch and strike respec