worth making, and he wouldn't be if he was miserable. I've seen one woman
make ten men unhappy! I know my calling, Orbie. Nothing would make me
marry one of them, poor things!"

"But if they all said as you do, Martha?"

"No doubt the world would come to an end, but it would go out singing,
not crying. I don't see that would matter. There would be enough to make
each other happy in heaven, and the Lord could make more as they were
wanted."

"Uncle says it takes God a long time to make a man!" I ventured to
remark.

Miss Martha was silent for a moment. She did not see how my remark bore
on the matter in hand, but she had such respect for anything my uncle
said, that when she did not grasp it she held her peace.

"Anyhow there's no fear of it for the present!" she answered. "You heard
the screed of banns last Sunday!"

I thought you would have a better idea of Miss Martha Moon from hearing
her talk, than from any talk about her. To hear one talk is better than
to see one. But I would not have you think she often spoke at such
length. She was in truth a woman of few words, never troubled or
troubling with any verbal catarrh. Especially silent she was when any one
she loved was in distress. I have seen her stand moveless for moments,
with a look that was the incarnation of essential motherhood--as if her
eyes were swallowing up sorrow; as if her soul was ready to be the
sacrifice for sin. Then she would turn away with a droop of the eye-lids