“You is my new papa, and me ’ikes you,” remarked that young gentleman, rising hastily to his feet, with the evident intention of bestowing a hug upon the person addressed.
“Sit still, Perry; you’ll fall out of the gig and be killed,” said his mother, putting a hand on his shoulder and forcing him down again. “Alonzo, do make him behave.”
“He’s going to do that of his own free will,” replied the doctor, smiling down upon the little prattler. “You know you must keep quiet, my little man, if you want to ride with your mamma and me.”
“Miss Heath has not called upon me yet, Alonzo,” repeated Serena, “and it is not according to the rules of etiquette for me to go there before she does.”
“Ah, no matter for that, my love, since her failure to do so has not been for want of will, but of ability; and to please me and poor Ronald, you will consent to waive ceremony in this instance, I am sure.”
“How want of ability?” she asked, with a slight pout of the full red lips; “what has there been to prevent her? ’Tis over a week since we came to Prairieville, and the weather has been charming.”
“Yes, I know; but Miriam Heath’s life is a very busy one; she is a girl in a thousand. Why, my dear, since her mother’s death, two years ago, she has actually carried on the farming herself; and she is only twenty-one, scarce a year older than her brave soldier brother.”
“A woman farmer! odious! She must be a coarse, vulgar creature. How can you want me to visit her, Alonzo?”
“My dear Serena, you were never more mistaken,” he said, warmly. “Miss Heath is as refined and ladylike as any woman of my acquaintance.”
“That doesn’t seem possible if she works in the field like a man.”