on of his own predicament.

"No, I don't know what makes him act so either," he cried, hotly. "Oh
Lord, Sarah, you sha'n't say such a thing!"

She interrupted him. "Won't you take it?"

He turned again: "You're just as good as you can be, but I can manage
some way."

"I'll watch for Lanham," she answered, quietly, "and keep him talking as
long as I can. He's just drunk enough to make a scene."

Half-way to the house, Joe met Harry Barker.

"What did she want?" he inquired, curiously.

When Joe told him he plunged into his pocket and drew out two dollars,
then offered to go among the young fellows and collect the balance of
the amount, but Joe caught hold of him.

"Think of something else."

"I could explain to the boys--"

"You go and ask Mrs. Lawrence if she won't step out on the porch," the
other commanded; "she's my great-aunt, and I never asked anything of her
before."

But Mrs. Lawrence was not sympathetic. She told Joe flatly that she
never lent money, and that the water-set was as much as she could afford
to give. "It ain't paid for, though," she added; "and if you'd rather
have the money, I suppose I can send it back. But seems to me I
shouldn't have been in such an awful hurry to git married; I should 'a'
waited a month or so, till I had something to git married on. But you're
just like your father--never had no calculation. Do you want I should
return that silver?"

Joe hesitated. It was an easy way out of the difficulty. Then a vision
of Esther rose before him, and the innocent preparations she had been
making for the display of the gift; "No," he answered, shortly. And Mrs.
Lawrence, with a shake of the shoulders as though she threw off all
responsibility in her young relative's affairs, bustled away. "I'm going
to keep that water-set if everything else has to go," he declared to the
astonished Harry. "Let 'em set me out in the road; I guess I'll git
along." He had a humorous vision of himself and Esther trudging forth,
with the water-set between them, to seek their fortune.

He flung himself from the porch, and was confronted by Jonas Ingram. The
old fellow emerged from behind a lilac-bush with a guilty yet excited
air.

"Young man, I ain't given to eaves-dropping, but I was strollin' along
here and I heered it all; and as I was calculatin' to give my niece a
present--" He broke off and laid a hand on Joe's arm. "Where is that
dod-blasted fool of a Lanham? I'll pay him; then I'll break eve