there would be feasting and laughing and talking, and, above all,
dancing until dawn!

"Beg pardon, Johnnie?" she stammered.

"Well, looks like some one round here is in love, or something!"
said Johnnie, freshly. "I never had it that bad, did you, Ellen?
Ellen's been telling me how you're fixed, Mary Bell," she went on
with deep concern, "and I was suggestin' that you run over to the
general store, and ask Mis' Rowe--or I should say, Mis' Bates," she
corrected herself with a grin, and the girls laughed--"if she won't
sleep at your house tonight. Chess'll tend store. It'll be something
fierce if you don't go, Mary Bell, so you run along and ask the
bride!" laughed Johnnie.

"I believe I would," approved Ellen, and the girls accordingly
crossed the grassy, uneven street to the store.

An immense gray-haired woman was in the doorway.

"Well, is it ribbon or stockings, or what?" said she, smiling. "The
place has gone crazy! There ain't going to be a soul here but me to-
night."

Mary Bell was silent. Ellen spoke.

"Chess ain't going, is he?" she asked.

The old woman shook with laughter.