l I get those
two pink silk cushions you made me buy. My! Father, but you and I are
getting extravagant in our old age! and all for a girl that may never
even answer our letter!"

There was a kind of sob in the end of Mother Marshall's words that she
tried to disguise, but Father caught it and flew to the rescue.

"There now, Mother!" he said, getting laboriously up from the carpet,
hammer in hand, and putting his arms tenderly about her. "There now,
Mother! Don't you go fretting! You see, like as not she was asleep when
the letter got there, and they wouldn't wake her up, or mebbe it would
be too much excitement for her at night that way! And then, again, if
the mail-train was late it wouldn't get into the night deliv'ry. You
know that happened once for Steve and he was real worried about us! Then
they might not have deliv'ry at the hospital on Sunday, and she couldn't
_get_ it till Monday morning! See? And there's another thing you got to
calcl'ate on, too! You never thought of that! She might be too sick yet
to read a letter, or think what to say to it! So just you be patient,
Mother! We'll just have that much more time to fix things; for, so to
speak, now we haven't got any limitations on what we think she is. We
can just plan for her like she was perfect. When we get her telegram
we'll get some idea, and begin to know the real girl, but now we've just
got our own notion of her."

"Why, of course!" choked Mother, smiling. "I'm just afraid, Seth, that
I'm getting set on her coming, and that isn't right at all, you know,
because she mightn't be coming."

"Well, and then again she might. Howsomenever, we'll have this room
fixed up company fine, and if she don't come we'll just come here and
camp for a week, you and me, and pretend we're out visiting. How would
that do? Say, it's real pretty here, like spring in the orchard, ain't
it, Mother? Well, now, you figure out what you're going to have for
bureau fixings, and I'll get back to my tacking. I want to get done
to-night and get that pretty white furniture moved in. You're sure the
enamel is perfectly dry on that bed? That was the last piece he worked
on. I think Jed made a pretty good job of it, for such quick work. Don't
you? Got a clean counterpane, and one of your pink-and-white patchwork
quilts for in here, haven't you, and a posy pin-cushion? My! but I'd
like to know what she says when she sees it first!"

And so the two old dears jollied each other along t