pprehensions afresh. Had his
fond heart broken under the too great strain? Had he passed away
callin' on my name?

My tears dribbled down onto my dress waist, though I tried to stanch
'em with my snowy linen handkerchief. Tommy's tears, too, began to
fall, seein' which I grabbed holt of Duty's black apron-strings and
wuz agin calm on the outside, and handed Tommy a chocolate drop (which
healed his woond), although on the inside my heart kep' on a seethin'
reservoir of agony and forbodin's.

The next day, as I sot in my comfortable easy chair on the car,
knittin' a little, tryin' to take my mind offen trouble and Josiah,
Tommy wuz settin' by my side, and Miss Meechim and Dorothy nigh by.
Aronette, like a little angel of Help, fixin' the cushions under our
feet, brushin' the dust offen her mistresses dresses, or pickin' up my
stitches when in my agitation or the jigglin' of the cars I dropped
'em, and a perfect Arabian Night's entertainer to Tommy, who
worshipped her, when I hearn a exclamation from Tommy, and the car
door shet, and I looked round and see a young man and woman advancin'
down the isle. They wuz a bridal couple, that anybody could see. The
blessed fact could be seen in their hull personality--dress, demeanor,
shinin' new satchels and everything, but I didn't recognize 'em till
Tommy sez:

"Oh, grandma, there is Phila Henzy and the man she married!"

Could it be? Yes it wuz Phila Ann Henzy, Philemon Henzy's oldest girl,
named for her pa and ma, I knew she wuz married in Loontown the week
before. I'd hearn on't, but had never seen the groom, but knew he wuz
a young chap she had met to the Buffalo Exposition, and who had
courted her more or less ever sence. They seemed real glad to see me,
though their manners and smiles and hull demeanors seemed kinder new,
somehow, like their clothes. They had hearn from friends in Jonesville
that I wuz on my way to California, and they'd been lookin' for me.
Sez the groom, with a fond look on her:

"I am so glad we found you, for Baby would have been so disappointed
if we hadn't met you."

Baby! Phila Ann wuz six feet high if she wuz a inch, but good lookin'
in a big sized way. And he wuz barely five feet, and scrawny at that;
but a good amiable lookin' young man. But I didn't approve of his
callin' her Baby when she could have carried him easy on one arm and
not felt it. The Henzys are all big sized, and Ann, her ma, could
always clean her upper buttery shelves wit