nd I will study hard and do everything
possible to be worthy of her, for she is a brave girl!"

Sam Brewster half arose to congratulate the two young people, but Sary's
dish was in the way. He bumped his head and the dish slid from her
hands.

Sary threw up both hands in dismay--there was the milk-toast spattered
all over the ground! But a laugh from her mistress caused her to look in
the direction the family-group were gazing. She saw Jeb standing as if
rooted to the grass, his lower jaw sagging as he frowned at a basket of
broken eggs upon the ground.

Sary threw her inspiration into the double breach caused by maid and
man. "Thar goes th' supper an' them eggs, but tush! Trifles don't count
none when a man hez sech fine news ez John an' Jeb hes. Come right over
here, Jeb, an' spring _yur_ secret now that John hes split his'n to the
fam'ly!"

Jeb scuffled his feet and sheepishly hung his head. One foot
unconsciously stirred the yolks of the broken eggs. But Sary was not a
woman to stand for such shyness when it cast reflections on her ardent
manner in which she described how Jeb rose to the bait temptingly hung
before his very nose.

She forgot milk-toast and all else in this final bout with her unwilling
lover. She hurried over and nudged him sharply in the ribs, then
whispered in a stage tone:

"G'wan now, Jeb! Spruce up an' tell 'em like-ez-how this air goin' to be
a double trick! John an' Miss Anne, me an' you--see!"

Polly and Eleanor laughed appreciatively, and Mrs. Brewster smiled for
she had had suspicions. But Sam Brewster was so amazed, that he leaned
back in his chair and puffed for breath. To think that Jeb could ever
have summoned enough courage to propose to a woman--but let that woman
be an Amazon like Sary, was past his comprehension!

He could not get over it, and later, his wife confided: "I actually
believe that Sary made this match for herself. Jeb could never have
stood the strain of making love, had not Sary met him _more_ than
half-way."

That evening when John and Anne were talking confidentially about the
future, John said: "Mother, I haven't a ring for Anne and I want her to
have it before she goes to New York, so I propose going to Denver and
buy it for her before I go back to work."

"And I thought, Mrs. Brewster, that it would be a good plan to see an
agent about renting our house for a year or two. If mother and I live in
New York, there is no sense in closing the place when w