“An’ the first ye know he’s up an’ a goin’,” said Mrs. Samuel Hill.  “An then all ye have to look at is a family o’ children an’ the empty bread box.”

“Wait until Abe has shed his coat an’ is filled out a little.  He’ll be a good-lookin’ man an’ I wouldn’t wonder,” Mrs. Waddell maintained.

“If Abe lives he’ll be a great man, I think,” said Mrs. Dr. Allen.  “I forgot how he looked when I heard him talking the other night at the debate in the schoolhouse about the flogging of sailors with the cat o’ nine tails.  He has a wonderful gift.  If I were Ann I should be proud of his friendship and proud to go with him to the parties.”

“I am,” said Ann meekly, with her eyes upon her work.  “I love to hear him talk, too.”

“Oh, land o’ mercy!  He’s good company if you only use your ears,” Mrs. Ferguson remarked.  “Mis’ Traylor, where did you git your man?”

“At Vergennes.  We were born in the same neighborhood and grew up together,” said Sarah.

“Now there’s the kind of a man!  Stout as a buffalo an’ as to looks I’d call him, as ye might say, real copasetic.”  Mrs. Lukins expressed this opinion solemnly and with a slight cough.  Its last word stood for nothing more than an indefinite depth of meaning.  She added by way of drawing the curtain of history:  “I’ll bet he didn’t dilly dally long when he made up his mind.  I reckon he were plum owdacious.”

“What a pretty pattern this is!” said Sarah with a sudden shift of front.

Mrs. Lukins was not to be driven from the Elysian fields so easily and forthwith she told the story of her own courtship.

A bountiful dinner of stewed venison and chicken pie and tea and frosted cake was served, all hands turning in to help with the table and the cleaning up.  While they were eating Sarah told of her long journey and their trials with fever and ague.

“It’s the worst part of going west but it really isn’t very dangerous,” said Mrs. Dr. Allen.

“Nine scoops o’ water in the holler o’ the hand from a good spring for three mornin’s before sunrise an’ strong coffee with lemon juice will break the ager every time,” said Mrs. Lukins.  “My gran’ mammy used to say it were better than all the doctors an’ I’ve tried it an’ know what it’ll do.”

“I suppose if you got ten scoops it would be no good,” said Sarah with a laugh in which Mrs. Allen and some of the others joined.

Mrs. Lukins looked offended.  “When I’m takin’ medicine I always foller directions,” said she.

So the day passed with them and was interrupted by the noisy entrance of Joe, soon after candlelight, who climbed on the back of his mother’s chair and kissed her and in breathless eagerness began to relate the history of his own day.

That ended the quilting party and Sarah and Mrs. Rutledge and Ann joined Samson and Abe and Harry Needles who were waiting outside and walked to the tavern with them.