"I did not say he was in love with her, Mrs. Daly, I only said he wanted our consent to marry her—so, wife, if you have no objection, I may as well let them marry at once; business is a little slack just at present, and he can be spared better now than in the spring."
"Why, to be sure, husband, Martin Barton is worth his weight in gold in such a shop as ours, and no one could supply his place if he were to leave us; so I'll just step back and tell Letty—oh, here she comes—Letty, my dear, Martin Barton's time is up, he is twenty-one this morning, and he told your father, and your father told me, that he wants to have you for a wife."
"Yes, so Martin Barton told me himself," said Miss Letty, a fine tempered girl of eighteen, and as brisk as a bee.
"Oh, then he has spoken to you himself, has he? When did you see him? Not this morning after church, I guess, for I saw him turn the corner with Ira Elkado, and I saw him come back with old Hosea Bringle around the very same corner."
"We talked the matter over after church about a month ago; indeed we have done all our courting in that way while coming home after church, for Martin Barton has no time to court on week days, you know."
"No more he has not," said the satisfied mother, "so, husband, all we have to do now is to get them married and pass the shop over to Martin Barton. You and I are tired of all this hard work, so we will go to our little farm in the country and live at our ease." Live at their ease!!
Martin Barton expected as much, and so did Miss Letty; they were married the following week, and before another week had expired Mr. and Mrs. Daly bade adieu to the thread and needle store, and went into the country to live at their ease!
