They found him seated at his table, with the big Bible open before him.
“Well, my lads,” he said, with a kindly smile as they entered, “you find me meditatin’ over a verse that seems to me full o’ suggestive thoughts.”
“Yes, father, what is it?” asked Dan.
“‘A prudent wife is from the Lord.’ You’ll find it in the nineteenth chapter o’ Proverbs.”
The youths looked at each other in great surprise. “It is very strange,” said Charlie, “that you should hit upon that text to-day.”
“Why so, Charlie?”
“Because—because—we came to—that is to say, we want to—”
“Get spliced, Charlie; out with it, man. You keep shuffling about the edge like a timid boy goin’ to dive into deep water for the first time.”
“Well, and so it is deep water,” replied Charlie; “so deep that we can’t fathom it easily; and this is the first time too.”
“The fact is, you’ve come to tell me,” said Adams, looking at Charlie, “that you want to marry Otaheitan Sally, and that Dan there wants to marry Sarah Quintal. Is it not so?”