pted daughter o'
theirn, Buck Gowdy's sister-in-law, eh?"

I wished I could have admitted this; but I had to explain that Virginia
had not been there. For some reason she seemed in better spirits when
she learned this. When it came time for dinner, which on Sunday was at
one o'clock, she insisted on getting the meal; and seemed to be terribly
anxious for fear everything might not be good. It was a delicious meal,
and to see her preparing it, and then clearing up the table and washing
the dishes gave me quite a thrill. It was so much like what I had seen
in my visions--and so different.

"Now," said she, coming and sitting down by me, and laying her hand on
mine, "ain't this more like it? Don't that beat doing everything
yourself? If you'd only try havin' me here a week, nobody could hire you
to go back to bachin' it ag'in. Think how nice it would be jest to go
out an' do your chores in the morning, an' when you come in with the
milk, find a nice breakfast all ready to set down to. Wouldn't that be
more like livin'?"

"Yes," I said, "it--it would."

"That come hard," said she, squeezing my hand, "like makin' a little boy
own up he likes a girl. I guess I won't ask you the next thing."

"What was the next thing, Rowena?"

"W'y, if it wouldn't be kind o' nice to have some one around, even if
she wa'n't very pretty, and was ignorant, if she was willin' to learn,
an' would always be good to you, to have things kind o' cheerful at
night--your supper ready; a light lit; dry boots warmed by the stove;
your bed made up nice, and maybe warmed when it was cold: even if she
happened to be wearin' an old apern like this--if you knowed she was
thinkin' in her thankful heart of the bashful boy that give it to her
back along the road when she was ragged and ashamed of herself every
time a stranger looked at her!"

Dumbhead as I was I sat mute, and looked as blank as an idiot. In all
this description of hers I was struck by the resemblance between her
vision and mine; but I was dreaming of some one else. She looked at me a
moment, and took her hand away. She seemed hurt, and I thought I saw her
wiping her eyes. I could not believe that she was almost asking me to
marry her, it seemed so beyond belief--and I was joked so much about the
girls, and about getting me a wife that it seemed this must be just
banter, too. And yet, there was something a little pitiful in it,
especially when she spoke again about my little gift to her so