w."

"No, she's not," said Adams, with an assenting nod. "She's not like
Mainmast by any means, bein' a deal younger an' better lookin'. Well,
now, Toc, you've given me matter to put in my pipe, (if I had one), an'
smoke it for some time to come--food for reflection, so to speak. Just
you go to work, my lad, as if there was nothin' in the wind, an' when
I've turned it over, looked at it on all sides, gone right round the
compass with it, worked at it, so to speak, like a cooper round a cask,
I'll send for you an' let you know how the land lies."

When Adams had anything perplexing on his mind, he generally retired to
the outlook cave at the mountain-top. Thither he went upon this
occasion. The result was, that on the following day he sent for
Thursday, and made him the following oration:--

"Thursday, my lad, it's not for the likes o' me to fly in the face o'
Providence. If you still remain in earnest about this little matter,
an' Susannah's mind ain't changed, I'll throw no difficulty in your way.
I've bin searchin' the Book in reference to it, an' I see nothin'
particular there regardin' age one way or another. It's usual in Old
England, Toc, for the man to be a deal older than the wife, but there's
no law against its bein' the other way, as I knows on. All I can find
on the subject is, that a man must leave his father and mother, an'
cleave to his wife. You han't got no father to leave, my boy, more's
the pity, an' as for Mainmast, you can leave her when you like, though,
in the circumstances, you can't go very far away from her, your tether
bein' somewhat limited. As to the ceremony, I can't find nothin' about
that in the Bible, but there's full directions in the Prayer-book; so
I'll marry you off all ship-shape, fair an' above board, when the time
comes. But there's one point. Toc, that I feel bound to settle, and
it's this: That you can't be married till you've got a good bit of
ground under cultivation, so that you may be able to keep your wife
comfortably without callin' on her to work too hard. You've bin a busy
enough fellow, I admit, since ever you was able to do a hand's turn, but
you haven't got a garden of your own yet. Now, I'll go up with you
to-morrow, an' mark off a bit o' your father's property, which you can
go to work on, an' when you've got it into something of a for'ard state,
I'll marry you. So--that's a good job settled."

When Adams finished, he turned away with a profound sig