ffalo horns,
mounted on red plush, with an inset mirror. Young Thomas set it up on
the kitchen table and scowled moodily at his reflection in the mirror.
If wedding presents were beginning to come, it was high time something
was done. The matter was past being a joke. This affair of the present
would certainly get out--things always got out in Valley View, dang it
all--and he would never hear the last of it.

"I'll marry," said Young Thomas decisively. "If Adelia Williams won't
have me, I'll marry the first woman who will, if it's Sarah Barnett
herself."

Young Thomas shaved and put on his Sunday suit. As soon as it was
safely dark, he hied him away to Adelia Williams. He felt very
doubtful about his reception, but the remembrance of the twinkle in
Adelia's brown eyes comforted him. She looked like a woman who had a
sense of humour; she might not take him, but she would not feel
offended or insulted because he asked her.

"Dang it all, though, I hope she will take me," said Young Thomas.
"I'm in for getting married now and no mistake. And I can't get Adelia
out of my head. I've been thinking of her steady ever since that
confounded gossip began."

When he knocked at Adelia's door he discovered that his face was wet
with perspiration. Adelia opened the door and started when she saw
him; then she turned very red and stiffly asked him in. Young Thomas
went in and sat down, wondering if all men felt so horribly
uncomfortable when they went courting.

Adelia stooped low over the woodbox to put a stick of wood in the
stove, for the May evening was chilly. Her shoulders were shaking; the
shaking grew worse; suddenly Adelia laughed hysterically and, sitting
down on the woodbox, continued to laugh. Young Thomas eyed her with a
friendly grin.

"Oh, do excuse me," gasped poor Adelia, wiping tears from her eyes.
"This is--dreadful--I didn't mean to laugh--I don't know why I'm
laughing--but--I--can't help it."

She laughed helplessly again. Young Thomas laughed too. His
embarrassment vanished in the mellowness of that laughter. Presently
Adelia composed herself and removed from the woodbox to a chair, but
there was still a suspicious twitching about the corners of her mouth.

"I suppose," said Young Thomas, determined to have it over with before
the ice could form again, "I suppose, Adelia, you've heard the story
that's been going about you and me of late?"

Adelia nodded. "I've been persecuted to the verge of insanity w