“‘Well,’ says I, ‘ef I don’t, somebody 226 else does; but I’d like to know what this deestric’s goin’ to do fur a teacher.’

“‘Oh,’ she says, blushin’ more ’an ever, ‘I am goin’ to teach my school out.’

“‘An’ then what?’ says I.

“‘Then I’ll tell you,’ she says, and run off laughin’.

“So I says to the ole man that night, after we’d gone to bed, says I, ‘Jonathan, Rhody is goin’ to marry Jim Curtis, an’ I dunno whether to be glad or sorry.’

“An’ he laughed till the bed shuk, an’ says he, ‘Why, whot on ’arth is ther’ to be sorry ’bout?’ says he; ‘ther’ aint a likelier feller’n the neighborhood than Jim, an’ as for Rhody, pshaw! she’s good enough an’ purty ’nough for anybody.’

“‘Oh,’ says I, ‘’tain’t that—they’re both well ’nough; but how’s our little girl goin’ to git along with Mis’ Curtis?’”