very fidgety and red.

"Several," returned John, "She has altogether too many aches and
pains to suit me; then she has no spirit whatever; and last, but not
least, I like somebody else. So, mother mine, you may as well give
up all hopes of that hundred thousand down in Alabama, for I shall
never marry Mabel Ross, never."

Mrs. Livingstone was now not only red and fidgety but very angry,
and, in an elevated tone of voice, she said, "I s'pose it's Nellie
Douglass you mean, but if you knew all of her that I do, I reckon----"

Here she paused, insinuating that she could tell something dreadful,
if she would! But John Jr. took no notice of her hints, and when he
got a chance, he replied, "You are quite a Yankee at guessing, for if
Nellie will have me, I surely will have her."

"Marry her, then," retorted his mother--"marry her with all her
poverty, but for heaven's sake, don't give so much encouragement to a
poor defenseless girl."

Wishing Mabel in Guinea, and declaring he'd neither speak to nor look
at her again, if common civilities were construed into encouragement,
John Jr. strode out of the room, determining, as the surest method of
ending the trouble, to go forthwith to Nellie, and in a plain,
straight-forward way make her an offer of himself. With him, to will
was to do, and in about an hour he was descending the long hill which
leads into Frankfort. Unfortunately, Nellie had gone for a few weeks
to Madison, and again mounting Firelock, the young man galloped back,
reaching home just as the family were sitting down to supper. Not