"He stopped in his tracks. Then I remembered who I was talkin' to.

"'Come along, here, now!' says I, and nailed him by the neck. 'You
ain't goin' to miss your happiness if main strength can give it to
you.' His toes touched about once to the rod. I run him into the
pen.

"'There,' says I, 'is somebody you know.'

"Well, sir, old Aleck looked at the gal, and the gal looked at
Aleck, and the rest of us looked at each other. Soon's the kid got
his breath from the shock he yells, 'I never laid eyes on that lady
before!'

"Oh, Hivins, Maria! That was the awfullest minute I ever lived
through. Poor old E. G. W. S.! We all turned away from him, out
of pity. He had the expression of a man that's fell down a
hundred-foot prospect hole and been struck by lightning before he
touched bottom. He grabbed aholt of the minister and swallered and
swallered, unable to chirp.

"At last he rallied. 'You mean to tell me, Aleck,' he says, in a
voice hardly strong enough to get through his mustache, 'that I've
made a mistake?'

"Aleck was always willing to believe he was wrong. 'I'm _pretty_
sure, Zeke--I ain't never seen you, have I, Miss?'

"'No, sir--not that I know of,' answers the girl, with her eyes on
the ground.