The interview, however, did not detain her long. Sorrel Top had under consideration an offer of marriage and wished to ask advice which Little Wolf gave without a smile, or change of countenance.
"Well, Sorrel Top, if he is as you say a man of good habits, and loves you and you love him, I see no objection to your getting married as soon as you like."
While Sorrel Top's affair was being thus satisfactorily disposed of, Daddy was anxiously bending over the sheet, upon which he could not get courage to make the first mark. There he sat silent and anxious, looking vacantly first at the ceiling, then at the pen which stood exactly perpendicular between his clumsy fingers. At length in dispair he arose and began to walk the floor, and then for the first time he observed Fanny Green quietly playing with her pet kitten.
"Fanny," said he, "do you know how to write?"
"O yes, Daddy, a little; mamma taught me to make all the letters."
"Well, Fanny," said he coaxingly, "come here and make a D for me; won't you? "'Tween you and me I've forgot which side the plaguey quirl goes. Here take this ere piece of paper, you might spile the sheet, and I'm mighty particular about hevin it in prime order."
As she took the pen Fanny suddenly began to distrust her memory. "Maybe I've forgot myself, Daddy;" rolling up her blue eyes to the anxious face bending over her. But she succeeded admirably in performing her task, which Daddy duly approved, by declaring that the quirl was almost equal to the Honey's quirls. His effort to copy it was also a success.
"See here, Fanny," said he pausing again, "you spell dear, d-e-r-e, don't you?"
"O no, Daddy, I spell it d-e-e-r. It's spelled so right under the picture of one in my book."
"'Tween you an' me, I don't mean that ere kind of a dear, Fanny, I guess it's d-e-r-e, I mean. Howsoever, I'll spell it so and risk it. Now, Fanny," said he, again dipping his pen in the ink, "you stand right here, fur there may be more letters that I've forgot how tu make, and if you'll show me, and help me fur to spell a letter, I'll mend your sled for you to-morrow."