ent on to say: 'There'll be
another good thing about that; if you get her and bring her back--'

"'Which is what I'm goin' for and intend to do.'

"'Then,' continued Sam, 'you two could sit on the back seat, and I could
sit in front and drive.'

"'Did you ever drive, Sam?' asked Captain Abner.

"'Not yet; but I wouldn't mind l'arnin'.'

"'But you won't l'arn with me and her,' said Captain Abner.

"'How are you goin' to manage it, then?' asked Sam. 'You won't want me
and her to sit on the back seat, and it wouldn't look jes right for you
an' her to be in front, and me behind all by myself, as if I was
company.'

"'Don't know,' said Captain Abner. 'We'll get her fust, and then let her
sit where she wants to.'

"'There's one thing I wouldn't like to see,' said Sam Twitty, 'and
that's you and me sittin' behind, and her a-drivin'.'

"'There won't be none of that,' said Captain Abner; 'that ain't my
way.'"

"Is that a good beginning?" asked the Master of the House, suddenly
addressing his wife.

"Yes," she replied, "very good; and I see this is to be a real man's
story."

"And so it should be, mamma," said the Daughter of the House. "Men know
more about men than they do about women."

"Don't be too sure of that," said her father. "But no matter. The two
friends started out on Monday morning after breakfast for Thompsontown.
Considerable delay was occasioned at the livery-stable by certain pieces
of advice which Sam Twitty offered to Captain Abner. In the first
place, he objected to a good black horse which had been attached to
the wagon, giving it as his opinion that that looked too much like a
funeral, and that a cheerful-colored horse would be much better adapted
to a matrimonial expedition. A gray horse, slower than the black one,
was substituted, and Sam was quite satisfied. Then a great many things
in the way of provisions and conveniences came into his mind which he
thought would be well to take on the voyage, and he even insisted upon
rigging up an extension at the back of the wagon on which her trunk
could be carried on the home journey.

"At last they got away, and as they drove slowly out of the little
village not one of the inhabitants thereof knew anything about their
intended journey, except that they were going to Thompsontown; for
Captain Abner and Sam Twitty would have as soon thought of boring a hole
in the bottom of a boat in which they were to sail as of telling their
neighbors they were