“You’d better come home with us,” continued John. “You know that place of yours isn’t very handy to get to and it’s been shut up all these months, and I will venture to say it isn’t any too well fixed up at its best.”
Ira laughed. “Well, I reckon you’re right. It is pretty messy as I remember.”
“Then you just come to our house till you can fix up,” urged John. “Lou will feel at home there and the girls will be delighted to have her, and you, too, for that matter.”
“I take it real kind of you,” said Ira. “If Lou’s willin’ I sholy am.”
“Indeed I’d like nothing better,” said Louisa. “You don’t think I ought to stay here with dad for awhile, do you, Mr. John?”
“Not a bit of it,” was the reply. “He’s got along all these years without you and I reckon he’ll be able to stand it awhile longer. Where is he, anyhow, and where is Pike?” He looked around the room from which both of the men were missing.
It was not very many minutes before Cyrus reentered, but he seemed nervous and in no good humor. His schemes had gone awry and he was not happy. Especially was this true after a conversation he had had outside with Pike, for Pike was in his ugliest mood and Cyrus did not enjoy a contemplation of what might result from the day’s doings.
But now Hannah Maria and some of the older women were busying themselves in offering the refreshments which Louisa had carefully prepared; great pans of biscuits, boiled hams, sweet cakes and such dainties as her father would allow her to provide. “It’s your last fling,” he had said ungraciously. “I reckon I’ll hev to let ye cook up somethin’ to keep folks from talkin’, though I don’t much care what they do say.” And so Louisa had done her best.
The majority of the company was in high spirits; even those who had failed to secure such an admirable helpmeet as Louisa were pleased that Ira should have been the successful rival, for he was a great favorite and every one had a good word to say of him.
“I swow,” said Matt Cochran, “I’d rather see Iry git her than anybody as long as I didn’t git her myself.”