drove me out with Winters to stay in
the shop, and I wasn't sorry, for it was an awful time in our house.

"Next morning, Aunt Melissy Lovejoy was still dangerous, and at
breakfast she broke out at things in general, and said the idea that
she, a Glenwood, should live to see a hired man sitting up to a child of
hers, especially one who was a Glenwood herself, resembling the family
as she did, and being named that way, too; which seemed worse, somehow,
than anything that ever happened to a Glenwood before, except her own
case; and she gave an awful look at Uncle Silas, who got a little
spunky--the only time I ever saw him that way--and said he thought that
Winters was quite a good fellow and would make as good a husband as _he_
had, meaning himself, of course, and Aunt Melissy said, 'Yes, just
about,' and asked him if he wanted his daughter to have as hard a row to
hoe as _she_ had, meaning _herself_, though it was Uncle Silas who had
the hard hoeing in that family, if I could judge.

[Illustration: THAT NIGHT WINTERS AND I TALKED IT OVER]

"Well, that night in the shop, Winters and I talked it over, and he
decided to go away and take Minty Glenwood with him. He might go to the
city, he said, to his folks, who had disowned him because he had been
quite wild, but very likely would take him back now that he had reformed
and was ready to be tamed by a nice little person like Minty Glenwood.
He and Minty would have to elope, of course, and he told me to tell her
just what to do, because I could get to see her alone, which he
couldn't. There was a little sapling grew near the tree, and one of its
limbs stuck out above her window. Winters said he would go out on that
limb and bend it down, about midnight, and Minty Glenwood could be there
and climb out on it, and they would go away together quite a distance
from Aunt Melissy, and live happy ever after.

"So I told Cousin Minty Glenwood about the plan, and just what to do,
and she was as scared as a chicken, but said she would do anything to
save the hired man from that awful city life he had mentioned. She said
she knew something would happen when she tried to climb out her window,
but she would have to do it, as it was the only way to get out without
going through Aunt Melissy's room, which would be much worse.

"Well, that night Winters and I got everything ready, and had all his
things packed in a bundle at the foot of the tree, and a little before
midnight by the full