Lyddy's wish."

Miss Tame smelt of the thoroughwort blossoms.

"It comes pretty sudden on me," she replied. "I hadn't given the subject
any thought. But you _are_ to be pitied in your situation."

"Yes. And I'm dreadful lonesome. I've always been used to having Lyddy
to talk over things with, and I miss her a sight. And I don't know
anybody that has her ways more than you have. You are a good deal such a
built woman, and you have the same hitch to your shoulders when you
walk. You've got something the same look to your eyes, too; I noticed it
last Sunday in meeting-time," continued the widower, anxiously.

"I do feel for you. A man alone is in a deplorable situation," replied
Miss Tame. "I'm sure I'd do any thing in my power to help you."

"Well, marry with me then. That is what I want. We could be real
comfortable together. I'll go for the license this minute, and we'll be
married right away," returned the impatient suitor. "You go up to Elder
Crane's, and I'll meet you there as soon as I can fetch around."

Then he hurried away, "without giving me a chance to say 'no,'" said
"she that was" Persis Tame, afterward. "So I _had_ to marry with him, as
you might say. But I've never seen cause to regret it, I've got a
first-rate of a hum, and Captain Ben makes a first-rate of a husband.
And no hain't he, I hope, found cause to regret it," she added, with a
touch of wifely pride; "though I do expect he might have had his pick
among all the single women at the Point; but out of them all he chose
_me_."--_The Atlantic Monthly_, March, 1870.