girl, an' how I
used to ride back an' forth on the pore old horse right into this town
to see her; an' as I drove home from the picnic I talked to the old nag
about it, an' she whisked her tail an' laid back her ears, jest like she
remembered it all. It was on old Bess that I rode away from my girl's
house after her first 'no' to me, an' it seemed then that the animal
sympathised with me, fur she drooped along an' held down her head jest
like I was a-doin'. Many a time after that we rode off that way
together, fur the girl was set in her ways, an' though she confessed to
a hankerin' fur me, she wanted to be independent. I think her father put
the idee into her head, fur he was a hard man, an' she was his all, his
wife bein' dead. After a while we stopped talkin' about the matter, an'
I jest went an' come as a friend. I only popped the question once more,
an' that was when her father died an' she was left all alone.

"It was a summer day, warm an' cheerful like this, only it was evenin',
an' we was a-settin' out on her front garden walk. She was a-knittin',
an' I was a-whippin' the groun' with a switch that I had brought along
to touch Bess up with now an' then. I had hitched her out front, an' she
kep' a-turnin' her eyes over the fence as ef she was as anxious as I
was, an' that was mighty anxious. Fin'ly I got the question out, an' the
girl went all red in a minute: she had been jest a purty pink before.
Her knittin' fell in her lap. Fust she started to answer, then she
stopped an' her eyes filled up. I seen she was a-weak'nin', so I thought
I 'd push the matter. 'Come,' says I, gentle like, an' edgin' near up
to her, 'give me my answer. I been waitin' a long time fur a yes.' With
that she grabbed knittin', apron, an' all, an' put 'em to her eyes an'
rushed into the house. I knowed she 'd gone in to have a good cry an'
settle her nerves, fur that 's the way all women-folks does: so I knowed
it was no use to bother her until it was done. So I walks out to the
fence, an', throwin' an arm over old Bess's back, I told her all about
it, jest as I 'm a-tellin' you, she a-lookin' at me with her big meltin'
eyes an' whinnyin' soft like.

"After a little while the girl come out. She was herself ag'in, but
there was a look in her face that turned my heart stone-cold. Her voice
sounded kind o' sharp as she said, ''Liphalet, I 've been a-thinkin'
over what you said. I 'm only a woman, an' I come purty near bein' a
weak one; but