have him.' That's what he'd been sayin'
ever since Annie was born. Nobody said anything to Annie, for she was
the sort o' girl who didn't care whose feelin's was tramped on, if she
jest had her own way.

"So it went on, and the weddin' day was set, and nothin' was talked
about but Annie's first-day dress and Annie's second-day dress, and
how many ruffles she had on her petticoats, and what the lace on her
nightgowns cost; and all the time there was pore Milly Baker cryin'
her eyes out night and day, and us women gittin' up all our old baby
clothes for Dick Elrod's unborn child."

Aunt Jane dropped her knitting in her lap, and gazed across the fields
as if she were seeking in the sunlit ether the faces of those who
moved and spoke in her story. A farm wagon came lumbering through the
stillness, and she gathered up the double thread of story and knitting
and went on.

"Annie always said she was goin' to have such a weddin' as the county
never had seen, and she kept her word. Old Man Bob had the house fixed
up inside and out. They sent up to Louisville for the cakes and
things, and the weddin' cake was three feet high. There was a solid
gold ring in it, and the bridesmaids cut for it; and every gyirl there
had a slice o' the bride's cake to carry home to dream on that night.
Annie's weddin' dress was white satin so heavy it stood alone, so they
said. And Old Man Bob had the whole neighborhood laughin', tellin' how
many heifers and steers it took to pay for the lace around the neck of
it.

"Annie and Dick was married in October about the time the leaves fell,
and Milly's boy was born the last o' November. Lord! Lord! what a
world this is! Old Man Bob wouldn't hear to Annie's leavin' him, so
they stayed right on in the old home place. In them days folks didn't
go a-lopin' all over creation as soon as they got married; they
settled down to housekeepin' like sensible folks ought to do. Old Lady
Elrod was as foolish over Dick as Old Man Bob was over Annie, and it
was laid down beforehand that they was to spend half the time at Old
Man Bob's and half the time at the Squire's, 'bout the worst thing
they could 'a' done. The further a young couple can git from the old
folks on both sides the better for everybody concerned. And besides,
Annie wasn't the kind of a gyirl to git along with Dick's mother. A
gyirl with the kind o' raisin' Annie'd had wasn't any fit
daughter-in-law for a particular, high-steppin' woman like Old Lady