"P. S.--I should have liked it better if you was a Methodist, but we
can't have everything just as we want it in this world."


Nobody spoke for a moment after the reading of this intensely practical
note. Captain Eri whistled softly, scratched his head, and then read the
letter over again to himself. At length Captain Perez broke the spell.

"Jerusalem!" he exclaimed. "She don't lose no time, does she?"

"She's pretty prompt, that's a fact," assented Captain Eri.

Captain Jerry burst forth in indignation:

"Is THAT all you've got to say?" he inquired with sarcasm, "after
gittin' me into a scrape like this? Well now, I tell you one thing, I--"

"Don't go on your beam ends, Jerry," interrupted Captain Eri. "There
ain't no harm done yit."

"Ain't no harm done? Why how you talk, Eri Hedge! Here's a woman that
I ain't never seen, and might be a hundred years old, for all I know,
comin' down here to-morrow night to marry me by main force, as you might
say, and you set here and talk about--"

"Now, hold on, hold on, Jerry! She ain't goin' to marry you unless you
want her to, 'tain't likely. More I think of it, the more I like the
woman's way of doin' things. She's got sense, there's no doubt of that.
You can't sell HER a cat in a bag. She's comin' down here to see you and
talk the thing over, and I glory in her spunk."