ain, because it looked so big, and trying to push his left hand into
his pocket.

"Beautiful sunshine, isn't it?" said Martha.

"Yes, 'tis," answered Bud, sticking his right foot up on the rung of the
chair and putting his right hand behind him.

"This snow looks like the snow we have at the East," said Martha. "It
snowed that way the time I was to Bosting."

"Did it?" said Bud, not thinking of the snow at all nor of Boston, but
thinking how much better he would have appeared had he left his arms and
legs at home.

"I suppose Mr. Hartsook rode your horse to Lewisburg?"

"Yes, he did;" and Bud hung both hands at his side.

"You were very kind."

This set Bud's heart a-going so that he could not say anything, but he
looked eloquently at Miss Hawkins, drew both feet under the chair, and
rammed his hands into his pockets. Then, suddenly remembering how
awkward he must look, he immediately pulled his hands out again, and
crossed his legs. There was a silence of a few minutes, during which Bud
made up his mind to do the most desperate thing he could think of--to
declare his love and take the consequences.

"You see, Miss Hawkins," he began, forgetting boots and fists in his
agony, "I thought as how I'd come over here to-day, and"--but here his
heart failed him utterly--"and--see--you."

"I'm glad to see you, Mr. Means."

"And I thought I'd tell you"--Martha was sure it was coming now, for Bud
was in dead earnest--"and I thought I'd just like to tell you, ef I only
know'd jest how to tell it right"--here Bud got frightened, and did not
dare close the sentence as he had intended--"I thought as how you might
like to know--or ruther I wanted to tell you--that--the--that I--that
we--all of us--think--that--I--that we are going to have a
spellin'-school a Chewsday night."

"I'm real glad to hear it," said the bland but disappointed Martha. "We
used to have spelling-schools at the East." But Miss Martha could not
remember that they had them "to Bosting."

Hard as it is for a bashful man to talk, it is still more difficult for
him to close the conversation. Most men like to leave a favorable
impression, and a bashful man is always waiting with the forlorn hope
that some favorable turn in the talk may let him out without absolute
discomfiture. And so Bud stayed a long time, and how he ever did get
away he never could tell.

CHAPTER XXVI.

A LETTER AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.

"SQUAR HAUKINS

"this is too Lett