“I didn’t bet,” said Mandy; “but what was that other thing you were going to tell me that was no secret?”

“Oh, that’s about another couple,” said Hiram.  “Tilly James is engaged.”

“Well, it’s about time,” said Mandy.  “Which one of them?”

“Samuel Hill,” replied Hiram, “and she managed it fust rate.  You know the boys have been flocking round her for more than a year.  Old Ben James, her pa, told me he’d got to put in a new hitchin’ post.  You see, there has been Robert Wood and ’Manuel Howe and Arthur Scates and Cobb’s twins and Ben Bates and Sam Hill, but Samuel was the cutest one of the lot.”

“Why, what did he do that was bright?” asked Mandy.

“Well,” replied Hiram, “you see, Tilly sot down and writ invites to all the boys that had been sparkin’ ’round her to come to see her the same night.  She gave these invites to her brother Bill to deliver.  Well, Sam Hill met him, found out what he was about, and kinder surmised what it all meant.  Wall, the night came ’round and Sam Hill was the only one that turned up at the time app’inted.  After talkin’ about the weather, last year’s crops, and spring plantin’, Sam just braced up and proposed, and Tilly accepted him on the spot.”

“Where were the other fellers?” asked Mandy.  “I always surmised that she thought more of Ben Bates than she did of Sam Hill.”

“Well, it didn’t come out till a couple of days afterwards,” said Hiram.  “You see, the shortest way to old James’s place is to go over the mill race, and all of the fellers but Sam Hill went that way, and the joke of it was that they all fell over into the river and got a duckin’.”

“Well,” said Mandy, “they must have been drinking.  Tilly is well rid of the whole lot of them.  Why, I’ve walked over that log time and time again.”

“Well, they hadn’t been drinkin’,” said Hiram.  “You see it was pretty dark and they didn’t get on to the fact that the log was greased till it was kinder too late to rectify matters.”

“And did Sam Hill do that?” asked Mandy.

“He did,” said Hiram; and he burst into a loud laugh, in which Mandy joined.

The laughing was quickly hushed as the kitchen door opened and Ezekiel entered, warmly dressed for his fight with the snow and carrying a heavy cane in his hand.

“Call the dog, Hiram,” said Ezekiel, “and we’ll start.  Mandy, tell Jim and Bill to come over to Deacon Mason’s for me about four o’clock, unless it looks too bad; if it does they needn’t try it till to-morrow morning.”

“All ready,” said he to Hiram, who was patting Swiss’s head, and off they started.

Again Mandy went to the window and watched the progress of the travellers.  Mrs. Crowley came into the kitchen and seeing Mandy at the window quietly turned out a mug of the hot cider and drank it.  She then approached Mandy and said, “What was all the laughin’ about?  I like a good joke myself.”