There was so much of confident happiness in that laugh that the man’s heart glowed youthfully.
“I shall be real glad to marry you, Mr. Baker,” she said. Then, with pride, “‘N’ I c’n cook, ‘n’ I know first rate how to do housework.”
She rose to her feet; her eyes shone.
Mr. Baker put his arm about her.
“Le’s go right along now,” he said, more quickly than he had yet spoken. “We’ll call to the minister’s ‘n’ engage him. You c’n stop there. We’ll be married to-day.”
“Can’t ye wait till I c’n put on my bunnit ‘n’ shawl?” Ann asked.
She left the room. In a few moments she returned dressed for going. She had a sheet of note-paper, a bottle of ink, and a pen in her hands.
“I c’n write,” she said confidently, “‘n’ I call it fairer to leave word for Aunt Mandany.”
“All right,” was the response; “go ahead.”
Mr. Baker said afterward that he never got much more nervous in his life than while Ann was writing that note. What if Mandany should appear! He wasn’t going to back out, but he didn’t want to see that woman.