Sproul was under the big maple as soon as she.

“For mercy sakes, Colonel Gid,” she gasped, “come over to my house as quick’s you can!”

She had come up behind him, and he leaped out of his chair with a snap like a jack-in-the-box.

“There’s somethin’ on, and I knowed it!” he squalled.  “What be them men peradin’ past here to your house for, and tellin’ me it ain’t none of my business?  You jest tell me, Pharline Pike, what you mean by triflin’ in this way?”

“Lord knows what it’s all about!  I don’t!” she quavered.

“You do know, too!” he yelled.  “Don’t ye try to pull wool over my eyes!  You do know, too!”

“It’s a turrible thing to be jealous,” cooed Cap’n Sproul to his trembling little wife, who had followed at his heels.

“I don’t know, either,” wailed the spinster.  “There’s one of ’em in the settin’-room balancin’ a plug-hat on his knees and sayin’, ’Lo! the bridegroom cometh’; and there’s two on the front steps kickin’ the dog ev’ry time he comes at ’em; and there’s one in the kitchen that smells o’ tar, and has got a bagful of shells and sech things for presents to me; there’s one in the barn lookin’ over the stock—­and I s’pose they’re comin’ down the chimbly and up the suller stairs by this time.  You’re the only one I’ve got in the world to depend on, Colonel Gid.  For mercy sakes, come!”

“What do they say—­what’s their excuse?” he demanded, suspiciously.

“They say—­they say,” she wailed—­“they say they want to marry me, but I don’t know what they’ve all come hov’rin’ round me for—­honest to Moses I don’t!” She folded her hands in her apron and wrung them.  “I’m pretty nigh scart to death of ’em,” she sobbed.

“I reckon you can give ’em an earful when you git down there,” said the Cap’n, “when you tell ’em that you’ve been engaged to her for fifteen years.  But it ain’t none surprisin’ that men that hear of that engagement should most natch’ally conclude that a woman would like to git married after a while.  I cal’late ye see now, brother-in-law, that you ain’t the only man that appreciates what a good woman Miss Pharlina Pike is.”

“You come along, Pharline,” said the Colonel, taking her arm, after he had bored the Cap’n for a moment with flaming eye.  “I reckon I can pertect ye from all the tramps ever let loose out of jails—­and—­and when I git to the bottom of this I predict there’ll be bloodshed—­there’ll be bones broke, anyway.”  With one more malevolent look at the Cap’n he started away.

“It’s only a short cut through the maple growth, Louada Murilla,” said Sproul.  “My rheumaticks is a good deal better of a sudden.  Let’s you and me go along.”

As they trudged he saw farmers at a distance here and there, and called to them to follow.

“Look here, I don’t need no bee!” howled the Colonel.  “This ain’t nothing to spread broadcast in this community.”

“Never can tell what’s li’ble to happen,” retorted Sproul.  “Witnesses don’t never hurt cases like this.”