opportunity to judge each other with reference to a life-long union. It
is the only way; and remember what rests on you in this matter. The
destinies of many women are involved.

* * * * *

I don't say this in a spirit of levity, but I do wish Polk Hayes and
Jane Mathers were out on the front steps in the moonlight, after a good
supper that has made him comfortable, Jane to be attired in something
soft that would float against his arm, whether she wanted it to or not!
I believe it would be good for Jane, and make things easier for me. Be
frank with Polk as to how much he asphyxiates me? I know better than to
blow out the gas like that! No, Jane!

But what is a woman going to do when she is young and hearty and husky,
with the blood running through her veins at a two-forty rate, when her
orchard is in bloom, the mocking-birds are singing the night through,
and she is not really in love with anybody? The loneliness does fill
her heart full of the solution of love, and she has got to pour off some
of it into somebody's life. There is plenty of me to be both abstract
and concrete, at the same time, and I thought of Uncle Peter.

Uncle Peter Is the most explosive and crusty person that ever happened
in Glendale, and it takes all of Aunt Augusta's energy, common-sense and
force of character to keep him and the two chips he carries on his
shoulders, as a defiance to the world in general, from being in a
constant state of combustion. He has been ostensibly the Mayor of
Glendale for twenty-five years, and Aunt Augusta has done the work of
the office very well indeed, while he has blown up things in general
with great energy. He couldn't draw a long breath without her, but of