chin at all hardly," says I. "The place where his chin ort to be is
nothin' but a holler place all filled up with irresolution and weakness.
And I believe Cicely will see trouble with that chin."

And then--I well remember it, for it was the very first time after
marriage, and so, of course, the very first time in our two lives--Josiah
called me a fool, a "dumb fool," or jest the same as called me so. He
says, "I wouldn't be a dumb fool if I was in your place."

I felt worked up. But, like warriors on a battle-field, I grew stronger
for the fray; and the fray didn't scare me none.

[Illustration: PAUL SLIDE.]

But I says, "You'll see if you live, Josiah Allen"; and he did.

But, as I said, I didn't see how Cicely ever fell in love with a man with
such a chin. But, as I learned afterwards, she fell in love with him under
a fur collar. It wus on a slay-ride. And he wuz very handsome from his
mouth up, very: his mouth wuz ruther weak. It wus a case of love at first
sight, which I believe in considerable; and she couldn't help lovin' him,
women are so queer.

I had always said that when Cicely did love, it would go hard with her.
Many's the offers she'd had, but didn't care for 'em. But I knew, with her
temperament and nater, that love, if it did come to her, would come to
stay, and it would come hard and voyalent. And so it did.

She worshipped him, as I said at first, under a fur collar. And then, when
a woman once gets to lovin' a man as she did, why, she can't help herself,