ood enough for you. Nothin' too good for a girl that stays to
home an' cooks f'r two old cusses----"

"You ain't cusses! You're jest as good as you can be; but I ain't
a-goin'--there!"

"Why not?"

"'Cause I ain't; that's why."

"Why, don't y' wan' to go back there where the people have nice houses,
an' where they's a good----"

"Well, I don't know enough; that's why. I ain't goin' back to no
seminary to be laughed at 'cause I don't know beans."

"But you do," laughed Bert, with an attempt to lighten the gloom--"you
know canned beans."

"They'd laff at me, I know, an' call me a little Norsk." She was ready
to cry.

"I'll bet they won't, not when they see our new dress an' our new gold
watch--dress jest the color o' crow's-foot grass, watch thirty carats
fine. I'd laugh to see 'em callin' my babe names then!"

And so by bribing, coaxing, and lying they finally obtained her tearful
consent. They might not have succeeded even then had it not been for a
young lady in Boomtown who was going back to the same school, and who
offered to take her in charge. But there was hardly a day that she did
not fling herself down into a chair and cry out:

"I jest ain't goin'. I'm all right here, an' I don't see why you can't
let me stay here. _I_ ain't made no fuss. Seems as if you thought it
was fun f'r me to go 'way off there where I don't know anythin' an'
where I don't know anybody."

But having come to a conclusion, the men were relentless. They hired
sewing-girls, and skirmished back and forth between Boomtown and the
farm like mad. Their steady zeal made up for her moody and fitful
enthusiasm. However, she grew more resigned to the idea as the days
wore on toward the departure, though her fits of dark and unusual
musing were alarming to Anson, who feared a desperate retreat at the
last moment.

He took her over to see Miss Holt one day, but not before he had
prepared the way.

"I s'pose things are in purty good shape around this seminary?" he
asked.

"Oh, yes, indeed. There are three large buildings; libraries,
picture-galleries, and music-rooms. The boarding-halls are carpeted and
the parlors are really elegant."

"Uh-hum!" commented Anson. "Well, now, I'm goin' to bring my girl over
to see you, an' I guess it 'u'd be jest as well if you didn't mention
these fineries an' things. Y' see, she's afraid of all such things. It
'u'd be better to tell her that things weren't very gorgeous
there--about like the grade