“Lands sakes!” exclaimed Miss Sally. “And me and him only got well acquainted last night at the festival. I never heard of such a thing!”
“It's love at first sight,” teased Mrs. Smith. “He will probably be around this afternoon to propose, and we can have the wedding this evening.”
“Well, he needn't come this afternoon, if he's got it in his mind to come,” said Miss Sally shortly, “for I won't be at home. I ain't goin' to be rushed that way, not by no man. I don't say but Mr. Hewlitt is a clever spoken man, Mrs. Smith, when he ain't talkin' books, but I ain't in the habit of bein' courted like I was a Seidlitz powder, and had to be drunk down before I stopped fizzin'. That may be some folks way of doin' it, but it ain't mine.”
“Nor Colonel Guthrie's,” suggested Mrs. Smith.
“If the Colonel's slow it ain't his fault,” said Miss Sally. “He'd be quick enough if I'd let him, but I can't see no hurry, one way or another. I don't say but that a husband is a good thing to have, mind you! I guess I'm like all other women and want to have one some time, but so long as I've got pa I'm in no hurry. He's as much trouble as a husband would be, and as grumpy when things don't go to suit him. Sometimes I feel like in the end I'd choose to marry the Colonel, since it wouldn't be so much of a change, the Colonel bein' like pa in some ways, such as bein' economical; and then again I feel like I'd prefer Skinner, just because he'd BE a change. I'd be always sure of gettin' good meat, for one thing, and I'd insist upon it. I can't a-bare tough meat.”
“Shoemakers' children go without shoes,” suggested Mrs. Smith.
“They wouldn't if I was their mother, an' I'll tell Skinner so, if I choose to marry him an' he tries to send home any but the best meat he's got in the shop,” said Miss Sally firmly. “That's one man, if I marry him, I won't take no foolishness from. When a man is castin' his eyes my way, an' then has to have a city ordinance made to compel him to do me the favor of buyin' four fire-extinguishers off of me, that ain't no earthly use to me, I'll let him know I'm going to have my way about some things when we're married. I know well enough I ain't such a beauty that Skinner an' the Colonel is what you might call infatuated with me, and I don't expect 'em to be. Pa's got money, and if he didn't have I guess the Colonel an' Skinner wouldn't bother their heads about me much; but if they like me for pa's money now I guess they'll like me for it just as well after they marry me, for I'll have it well known that money don't go out of my name. And I'll let this book agent man know it too. If it's pa's money he's in such a hurry to get, he'll find out his mistake.”
“I rather like the book agent,” said Mrs. Smith. “He doesn't seem to me at all the adventurer type.”
“His whiskers do make him look like a preacher,” said Miss Sally, “if that's what you mean; but if he means business he ought to know I ain't the kind of bird to be caught with boxes of candy. Neither Skinner nor the Colonel is so silly as to think that.”
She smoothed her apron across her knees, and looked at its checked pattern.