confess the whole dang trick, but I remembered your
talk and helt out.

"'I see,' said she, with a sigh, 'you don't mean what you've been saying
to me all this time.'

"I looked her straight in the eyes, Alf, and let 'er have it right from
the shoulder good and fast. 'I tell you, Julia,' said I, 'I'm a marrying
man. I'm tired of living alone in the back end of a store with just a
house-cat for company, while men no better are toasting their shins at a
cheerful family fire. I'm tired of fooling. Carrie may not have as many
dudes at her beck and call as some I know, but she knows what she wants
in the man-line and won't take all eternity to decide.'

"'Oh, you are cruel! You are heartless!' Julia said, and then she
busted out crying. Then, before we knowed it, me and her was walking in
the woods, 'long a narrow, shady road. She said, Alf, that she'd loved
me good and true all along and wanted to quit everything that was
foolish and settle down. We are going to be married Christmas, and, Alf,
I'm so happy I could holler at the top of my voice. If I don't sell
goods to-day there won't be a customer in forty miles of the store."

Henley nodded slowly. "The thing worked," he said, "and I'm glad. The
only thing I hate about it is that we had to fool that poor woman to do
it. But Carrie was acting wrong with that boy. I had to do it to save
him and his old mammy. We must make it up to Carrie some way. We'll find
her a husband if we have to advertise in the papers and put up cash
inducements. She's got a mischievous tongue and lots of malice, but hard
luck fetched 'em on her."

"Alf, you are a good chap," Cahews said, with emotion. "I know well
enough you ain't any too happy at home--a blind man could see that--and
yet you are always trying to help others."

Henley's kindly eyes wavered as they rested on those of his friend. "My
wife is doing the best she can, too, Jim. I don't blame her. In fact, I
blame myself. When that fellow went off and died I ought to have left
her alone with her grief, but I was blinded by the desire to have what
I'd tried so long to win. I reckon I took an unfair advantage of her at
a time when she wasn't in a mood to fight off anything. Now, let's get
to work. I've got lots to do."

CHAPTER XXIII

As was his custom on Sunday mornings, Henley accompanied his wife and
the Wrinkles to church service in Chester on the day Long was expected
to pay his visit to Dixie. Henley and the old man