He went around the house, out past the stable and corrals and across the irrigating ditch to where he saw Joel Rae leaning on the rail fence about the peach orchard. Far down between two rows of the blossoming trees he could see the girl reaching up to break off a pink-sprayed bough. He quickened his pace and was soon at the fence.
“Brother Joel,—I—the—”
The good man had been full of his message a moment before, but now he stammered and hesitated because of something cold in the other’s eye as it seemed to note the unwonted elegance of his attire. He took a quick breath and went on.
“You see the Lord has moved me to add another star to my crown.”
“I see; and you have come to get me to seal you?”
“Well, of course I hadn’t thought of it so soon, but if you want to do it to-night—”
“As soon as you like, Bishop,—the sooner the better if you are to save the soul of another woman against the day of desolation. Where is she?” and he turned to go back to the house. But the Bishop still paused, looking toward the orchard.
“Well, the fact is, Brother Joel, you see the Lord has made me feel to have Prudence for another star in my crown of glory—your daughter Prudence,” he repeated as the other gazed at him with a sudden change of manner.
“My daughter Prudence—little Prue—that child—that baby?”
“Baby?—she’s fourteen; she was telling my daughter Mattie so jest the other day, and the Legislatur has made the marrying age twelve for girls and fifteen for boys, so she’s two years overtime already. Of course, I ain’t fifteen, but I’m safer for her than some young cub.”