f the swamp; it was a lovely place--a boggy soil, green with the
greenest of mossy hillocks; a silvery brook meandered through it and
spruces stood erectly, their boughs a-trail with gray-green mosses,
their roots overgrown with all sorts of woodland lovelinesses.

Nevertheless, Anne found life in Valley Road a little monotonous. To be
sure, there was one diverting incident.

She had not seen the lank, tow-headed Samuel of the peppermints since
the evening of his call, save for chance meetings on the road. But one
warm August night he appeared, and solemnly seated himself on the rustic
bench by the porch. He wore his usual working habiliments, consisting of
varipatched trousers, a blue jean shirt, out at the elbows, and a ragged
straw hat. He was chewing a straw and he kept on chewing it while he
looked solemnly at Anne. Anne laid her book aside with a sigh and took
up her doily. Conversation with Sam was really out of the question.

After a long silence Sam suddenly spoke.

"I'm leaving over there," he said abruptly, waving his straw in the
direction of the neighboring house.

"Oh, are you?" said Anne politely.

"Yep."

"And where are you going now?"

"Wall, I've been thinking some of gitting a place of my own. There's
one that'd suit me over at Millersville. But ef I rents it I'll want a
woman."

"I suppose so," said Anne vaguely.

"Yep."

There was another long silence. Finally Sam removed his straw again and
said,

"Will yeh hev me?"

"Wh--a--t!" gasped Anne.

"Will yeh hev me?"

"Do you mean--MARRY you?" queried poor Anne feebly.

"Yep."

"Why, I'm hardly acquainted with you," cried Anne indignantly.

"But yeh'd git acquainted with me after we was married," said Sam.

Anne gathered up her poor dignity.

"Certainly I won't marry you," she said haughtily.

"Wall, yeh might do worse," expostulated Sam. "I'm a good worker and
I've got some money in the bank."

"Don't speak of this to me again. Whatever put such an idea into your
head?" said Anne, her sense of humor getting the better of her wrath. It
was such an absurd situation.

"Yeh're a likely-looking girl and hev a right-smart way o' stepping,"
said Sam. "I don't want no lazy woman. Think it over. I won't change my
mind yit awhile. Wall, I must be gitting. Gotter milk the cows."

Anne's illusions concerning proposals had suffered so much of late years
that there were few of them left. So she could laugh wholeheartedly over
this one