can't help feelin' 't it 'd be kind o' awkward to go up to him 'n'
have to begin by askin' him what my name 'd be 'f I married him. Maybe
there's them 's could do such a thing, but I 've never had nothin'
about me 's 'd lead me to throw myself at the head o' any man, 'n'
it's too late in the day f'r me to start in now."

Mrs. Lathrop again attempted to get in a word and was again
unsuccessful.

"I don't believe 't there's another free man in the town. I've thought
'n' thought 'n' I can't think o' one." She stopped and sighed.

"There's Jathrop!" said Mrs. Lathrop, with sudden and complete
success. Jathrop was her son, so baptized through a fearful slip of
the tongue at a critical moment. He was meant to have been John.

Miss Clegg gave such a start that she dropped her fan over the fence.

"Well, Heaven forgive me!" she cried,--"'n' me 't never thought of him
once, 'n' him so handy right on the other side of the fence! Did I
ever!"

"He ain't thir--" said Mrs. Lathrop, picking up the fan.

"I don't care. What's twelve years or so when it's the woman 's 'as
got the property? Well, Mrs. Lathrop, I certainly _am_ obliged to you
for mentionin' him, for I don't believe he ever would 'a' occurred to
me in kingdom come. 'N' here I've been worryin' my head off ever since
supper-time 'n' all for suthin' 's close 's Jathrop Lathrop. But I had
good cause to worry, 'n' now 't it's over I don't mind mentionin' the
reason 'n' tellin' you frank 'n' plain 't I'd begun on my things. I
cut out a pink nightgown last night, a real fussy one, 'n' I felt sick
all over 't the thought 't perhaps I'd wasted all that cloth. There
wasn't nothin' foolish about cuttin' out the nightgown, for I'd made
up my mind 't if it looked too awful fancy on 't I'd just put it away
for the oldest girl when she gets married, but o' course 'f I can't
get a husband stands to reason there'll be no oldest girl, 'n' all
that ten cent gingham 't Shores is sellin' off't five 'd be a dead
waste o' good stuff."

Mrs. Lathrop chewed her clover.

"Do you suppose there'll be any trouble with Jathrop? Do you suppose
it'll matter any to him which side o' the fence he lives on?"

Mrs. Lathrop shook her head slowly.

"I sh'd think he ought to be only too pleased to marry me 'f I want
him to, all the days 't I tended him when he was a baby! My, but he
_was_ a cute little fellow! Everybody was lookin' for him to grow up a
real credit to you _then_. Well, 's far 's th