“I’ll do it!” declared Lucas.
“Don’t you dare!” threatened ’Phemie.
“Why–why—”
Lucas was swamped in his own confusion again.
“Not unless I tell you you may,” said ’Phemie, smiling on him dazzlingly once more.
“Wa-al.”
“Wait and see if we are disturbed again,” spoke the girl, more kindly. “I really am obliged to you, Lucas; but I couldn’t hear of your watching under our windows these cold nights–and, of course, it wouldn’t be proper for us to let you stay in the house.”
“Wa-al,” agreed the disappointed youth. “But if ye need me, ye’ll let me know?”
“Sure pop!” she told him, and was only sorry when he was gone that she could not tell Lyddy all about it, and give her older sister “an imitation” of Lucas as a cavalier.
The girls wrote the letter to Aunt Jane that evening and the next morning they watched for the rural mail-carrier, who came along the highroad, past the end of their lane, before noon.