companions to a rational critter like man,
with a firm grip on his heart. To think of gittin' a husband like Abel
Revercomb--the risin' man in the county--an' then to turn aside from the
comforts of life on o'count of nothin' mo' than a feelin'."

"Well, it ain't as if she'd taken a fancy to a plain, ordinary kind of
man," remarked Betsey. "Thar's somethin' mo' elevatin' about a parson,
an' doubtless it's difficult to come down from a pulpit to common earth
when you've once lifted yo' eyes to it. Thar warn't no shame about her
cryin' out like that in church. They ought to have broke it to her mo'
gently."

"I warn't thar," said old Adam, "but how did Abel conduct himself?"

"Oh, he just got up an' led her out sort of gently, while she was cryin'
an' sobbin' so loud that it drowned what Mr. Mullen was sayin'," replied
Betsey.

"Thar ain't a better husband in the county," said Solomon, "accordin' to
a man's way of lookin' at it, but it seems a woman is never satisfied."

"I'm glad I never married," remarked young Adam, "for I might have got
one of the foolish sort seein' as they're so plentiful."

"Well, I never axed much bein' so unattractive to the sex," observed Jim
Halloween, "an' as long as a woman was handsome, with a full figger, an'
sweet tempered an' thrifty an' a good cook, with a sure hand for pastry,
an' al'ays tidy, with her hair curlin' naturally, an' neat an' fresh
without carin' about dress, I'd have been easy to please with just the
things any man might have a right to expect."

"It's the way with life that those that ax little usually get less,"
commented old Adam, "I ain't sayin' it's all as it ought to be, but by
the time the meek inherit the earth thar'll be precious little left on
it except the leavin's of the proud."

"Thar ain't any way of cultivatin' a proud natur when you're born meek,
is thar?" inquired his son.

"None that I ever heerd of unless it be to marry a meeker wife. Thar's
something in marriage that works contrariwise, an' even a worm of a man
will begin to try to trample if he marries a worm of a woman. Who's that
ridin' over the three roads, young Adam?"

"It's Abel Revercomb. Come in an' pass the time of day with us, Abel."

But the miller merely shouted back that he had ridden to Piping Tree for
a bottle of medicine, and went on at a gallop. Then he passed from the
turnpike into the sunken road that led to the mill, and the cloud of
dust kicked up by his mare drifted af