uld let ours, while she
stared at Sally.

"I don't care!" said Sally, straightening taller yet; her eyes began to
shine and her lips to quiver, as if she would cry in a minute; "I don't
care----!"

"Which means, my child, that you DO care, very much," said father.
"Suppose you cease such reckless talk, and explain to us exactly what
it is that you do want."

Sally gave her bonnet an awful jerk. Those roses would look like sin
before my turn to wear them came, and she said: "Well then, I do care!
I care with all my might! The church is all right, of course; but I
want to be married in my very own home! Every one can think whatever
they please about their home, and so can I, and what I think is, that
this is the nicest and the prettiest place in all the world, and I
belong here----"

Father lifted his head, his face began to shine, and his eyes to grow
teary; while mother started toward Sally. She put out her hand and
held mother from her at arm's length, and she turned and looked behind
her through the sitting-room and parlour, and then at us, and she
talked so fast you never could have understood what she said if you
hadn't known all of it anyway, and thought exactly the same thing
yourself.

"I have just loved this house ever since it was built," she said, "and
I've had as good times here as any girl ever had. If any one thinks
I'm so very anxious to leave it, and you, and mother, and all the
others, why it's a big mistake. Seems as if a girl is expected to
marry and go to a home of her own; it's drummed into her and things
fixed for her from the day of her birth; and of course I do like Peter,
but no home in the world, not even the one he provides for me, will
ever be any dearer to me than my own home; and as I've always lived in
it, I want to be married in it, and I want to stay here until the very
last second----"

"You shall, my child, you shall!" sobbed mother.

"And as for having a crowd of men that father is planning to ask,
staring at me, because he changes harvest help and wood chopping with
them, or being criticised and clawed over by some women simply because
they'll be angry if they don't get the chance, I just won't--so there!
Not if I have to stand the minister against the wall, and turn our
backs to every one. I think----"

"That will do!" said father, wiping his eyes. "That will do, Sally!
Your mother and I have got a pretty clear understanding of how you
feel, now. Don't excite