gh of that, too. There wasn't any plannin' about it--not
until today, anyhow. I didn't know he wasn't goin' to the Fair and he
didn't know I wasn't. He would have gone only--only you deserted him to
go off with your own--your own gentleman friend. Humph! I should think
you would look ashamed!"

Miss Parker's "shame"--or her feelings, whatever they might be--seemed
to render her speechless. Her brother saw his chance.

"You know that's just what you done, Hannah," he put in, pleadingly.
"You know you did. I was so lonesome--"

"Hush! Hush, Kenelm!" ordered Imogene. "You left him alone to go with
another man, Miss Parker. For all he knew you might be--be runnin' off
to be married, or somethin'. So he come to where he had a friend, that's
all. And what if he did? He can get married, if he wants to, can't he?
I'd like to know who'd stop him. He's over twenty-one, I guess."

This speech was too much for Emily; she laughed aloud. That laugh was
the final straw. Hannah made a dive for her brother.

"You come home with me," she commanded. "You come right straight home
with me this minute. As for you," she added, turning to Imogene,
"I shan't waste any more words on a--on a thing like you. After my
brother's money, be you? Thought you'd get him and it, too, did you?
Well, you shan't! He'll come right along home with me and there he'll
stay. He's worked in this place as long as he's goin' to, Miss Inmate.
I'll take him out of YOUR clutches."

"Oh no, you won't! Him and me are goin' to the Fair tomorrow and on
Monday he's comin' back to work here same as ever. You are, ain't you,
Kenelm?"

Kenelm gulped and fidgeted. "I--I--I--" he stuttered.

"You see, Hannah," continued Imogene--"I suppose I might as well begin
to call you 'Hannah,' seein' as we're goin' to be relations pretty
soon--you see, he's engaged to me now and he'll do what I ask him to, of
course."

"Engaged! He ain't engaged! I'll fix the 'engagement.' That'll be broke
off this very minute."

And now Imogene played her best trump. She took from her waist a slip of
paper and handed it to Captain Obed.

"Just read that out loud, won't you, please, Cap'n Bangs?" she asked.

The captain stared at the slip of paper. Then, in a choked voice, he
read aloud the following:

I, Kenelm Issachar Parker, being in sound mind and knowing what I am
doing, ask Imogene to be my wife and I agree to marry her any time she
wants me to.

(Signed) KENELM ISSACHAR PARKER.