"Every little family has a hero of its own," Truxton supplemented. "Mary thinks none of the others did anything—I won the whole war. That's where I have it over you two," he grinned.
"It is a thing," said the Major, cheerfully, "which can be remedied."
"It can," Truxton told him; "which reminds me that our young John is going to marry Flippins' Daisy, and our household is in mourning. Mandy doesn't approve of Daisy, and neither does Calvin. Mandy took to her bed when she heard the news, and young John cooked breakfast to the tune of his Daddy's lamentations. But it was a good breakfast."
"Marriage," said the Major, "seems rather epidemic in these days."
Randy rose restlessly and sat on the porch rail. "Why in the world does John want to marry Daisy——"
"Why not?" easily. "There's some style about Daisy——"
"But there are lots of nice, comfortable, hard-working girls in this neighborhood."
"Lead me to 'em," Truxton mimicked young John, "lead me to 'em. Mary says that Daisy is the best of the lot. She has plenty of good sense back of her foolishness, and she is one of the best cooks in the county. She and John are planning to go up to Washington and open an old-fashioned oyster house. She says that people are complaining that they can't get oysters as they did in the old days, and she is going to show them. I wouldn't be surprised if they made a success of it. And I tell you this—I envy John. He will have a paying business, and here I am without a thing ahead of me, and I have married a wife and the ravens won't feed us."
Randy stuck his hands in his pockets with an air of sudden resolution.