eachin' of promises--No sir-ee! Ho! ho!"

She stopped to laugh in gleeful triumph. John laughed too. Captain Obed
scratched his head.

"But, hold on there; heave to, Imogene!" he ordered. "I don't seem to
get the whole of this yet. You did agree to marry him. Suppose he'd said
you'd got to marry him, what then?"

"He wouldn't. He didn't want to marry me--not after I'd took my time at
bossin' him around a while. And if he had--well, if he had, and I'd had
to do it, I would, I suppose. I'd do anything for Mrs. Thankful,
after what's she's done for me. Miss Emily and me had a talk about
self-sacrifice and I see my duty plain. I told Miss Emily why I did
it that night when you all came home from the Fair. She understood the
whole thing."

The captain burst into a roar of laughter.

"Ho! ho!" he shouted. "Well, Imogene, I said you beat all my goin' to
sea, and you do--you sartin do. Now, I'd like to be on hand and see how
Hannah takes it. If I know her, now that that engagement ain't hangin'
over her, she'll even up with her brother for all she's had to put up
with. Ho! ho! Poor old Kenelm's in for a warm Christmas."

And yet Kenelm's Christmas was not so "warm" after all. He told Hannah
of his broken engagement, wasting no words--which, for him, was very
remarkable--and expressing no regret whatever. Hannah listened, at first
with joy, and then, when Imogene's "love" was conveyed to her, with
growing anger.

"The idea!" she cried. "And you bring me over a message like that. From
her--from an Orphans' Home inmate to your own sister! And you let her
walk over you, chuck you out as if you was a wornout doormat she'd wiped
her boots on, and never said a word. Well, I'll say it for you. I'll
tell her what I think of her. And she was cal'latin' to sue YOU for
breaches of promise, was she? Humph! Two can play at that game. I don't
know's I shan't have you sue her."

"I don't want to. I told you this mornin' I didn't care nothin' about
marryin' her. And you didn't want me to yourself. Now that it's all over
you ought to be happy, I should think. I don't see what you're growlin'
about."

"No, I suppose you don't. You--you," with withering contempt, "you
haven't got the self-respect of--of a woodtick. I'm--I declare I'm
perfectly prospected with shame at havin' such a brother in my family.
And after cruisin' around with her and takin' her to the Cattle Show--"

"You went to the Cattle Show yourself."

"I don't care if I