. 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 moon Winters went up and crawled out on the limb to
bend it down, but when he got there it wouldn't bend far enough to reach
Minty Glenwood's window--him being a lightweight person, though I've
heard he got fatter later on. He couldn't jump on it, for fear of waking
up Aunt Melissy, so he came down and said I would have to go out on the
limb, and he would stay on the ground with the things, because I was
always pretty solid, even in those days. So then I went out and crawled
along on that limb, which bent down with me, all right, but didn't quite
reach Minty Glenwood's window, and I couldn't see how she was going to
get on it unless she jumped, which I never thought she'd do.

[Illustration: "SENT ME SAILING UP INTO THE SKY"]

"But you never can tell what a young person in love _will_ do. She was
there waiting, all dressed in her Sunday things, with a big bundle of
what she was going to take along, and when I asked her, in a whisper, if
she could jump and grab the limb, she didn't wait to think about it, or
to give me notice to get ready, but just jumped, bundle and all, and
grabbed the limb with one hand and me with the other, and down we swung,
for Minty Glenwood was plump, too, and quite heavy with the bundle, and
then she let go and dropped, which I should have done, only I forgot it,
and a second later that limb sprang back and sent me sailing up into
the sky just about in the direction of the full moon.

"Minty Glenwood landed all right--on her bundle, I heard later--and she
and Winters had probably got a good ways on their wedding journey by the
time I came down in a brush-heap, where we had been clearing up a new
p