The young folks of our meetin'-house had a sort of a evenin'
meetin' there to see about raisin' some money for the help of the
steeple -- repairin' of it. Abram is a member, and so is
Ardelia, and I see the hull thing. I see him totter and I see
him fall. And prostrate he wuz, from that first night. Never
was there a feller that fell in love deeper, or lay more
helpless. And Ardelia liked him, that wuz plain to see; at fust
as I watched and see him totter, I thought she wuz a sort o'
wobblin' too, and when he fell deep, deep in love, I looked to
see her a follerin' on. But Ardelia, as soft as she wuz, had an
element of strength. She wuz ambitious. She liked Abram, but
she had read novels a good deal, and she had for years been
lookin' for a prince to come a ridin' up to their dooryard in
disguise with a crown on under his hat, and woo her to be his
bride.

And so she braced herself against the sweet influence of love and
it wuz tuff -- I could see for myself that it wuz, when she had
laid out to set on a throne by the side of a prince, he a holdin'
his father's scepter in his hand -- to descend from that elevation
and wed a husband who wuz a moulder of bread, with a rollin' pin
in his hand. It wuz tuff for Ardelia; I could see right through
her mind (it wuzn't a great distance to see), and I could see jest
how a conflict wuz a goin' on between love and ambition.

But Abram had my best wishes, for he wuz a boy I had always
liked. The Gees had lived neighbor to us for years. He wuz a
good creeter and his bread wuz delicious (milk emptin's). He wuz
a sort of a hard, sound lookin' chap, and she, bein' so oncommon
soft, the contrast kinder sot each other off and made 'em look