“Now, sir, what is the nearest place for me to buy our furniture?”

“Why, ain’t you goin’ to use mine—­at least’s far’s it goes?” said the poor Elder.  “I thought that was in the bargain.”

Draxy looked disturbed.  “Oh, how careless of me,” she said; “I am afraid nothing was said about it.  But we cannot do that; my father would dislike it; and as we must have furniture for our new house, we might as well have it now.  I have seven hundred dollars with me, sir; father thought I might decide to buy a house, and have to pay something down.”

“Please don’t be angry with me,” she added pleadingly, for the Elder looked vexed.  “You know if I am sure my father would prefer a thing, I must do it.”

The Elder was disarmed.

“Well, if you are set on buyin’ furniture,” he said, “I shouldn’t wonder if you’d have a chance to buy all you’d want cheap down at Squire Williams’s sale in Mill Creek.  His wife died the night your first letter came, an’ I heard somebody say he was goin’ to sell all out; an’ they’ve always been well-to-do, the Williamses, an’ I reckon you’d fancy some o’ their things better’n anything you’d get at the stores.”

Already the Elder began to divine Draxy’s tastes; to feel that she had finer needs than the women he had known.  In less than an hour he was at the door with Eben Hill’s horse and wagon to take Draxy to Squire Williams’s house.

“Jest more o’ the same Providence that follows that girl,” thought he when he saw Draxy’s eyes fairly dilate with pleasure as he led her into the old-fashioned parlor, where the furniture was piled and crowded ready for the auction.

“Oh, will they not cost too much for me, dear Mr. Kinney?” whispered Draxy.

“No, I guess not,” he said, “there ain’t much biddin’ at these sort of sales up here,” and he mentally resolved that nothing Draxy wanted should cost too much for her.

The sale was to be the next day.  Draxy made a careful list of the things she would like to buy.  The Elder was to come over and bid them off for her.

“Now you just go over ’em again,” said the Elder, “and mark off what you’d like to have if they didn’t cost anything, because sometimes things go for’s good ’s nothing, if nobody happens to want ’em.”  So Draxy made a second list, and laughing a little girlish laugh as she handed the papers to the Elder, pointed to the words “must haves” at the head of the first list, and “would-like-to-haves” at the head of the second.  The Elder put them both in his breast-pocket, and he and Draxy drove home.

The next night two great loads of Squire Williams’s furniture were carried into Elder Kinney’s house.  As article after article was taken in, Draxy clapped her hands and almost screamed with delight; all her “would-like-to-haves” were there.  “Oh, the clock, the clock!  Have I really got that, too!” she exclaimed, and she turned to the Elder, half crying, and said, “How shall I ever thank you, sir?”