"I'd be taking bigger ones if I stayed away."

Sam mentally concluded that Will knew what he was talking about, though he could not understand it himself.

"What'll folks say?" he blurted.

Will's face grew dark with anger.

"What will they say?" he asked, quickly. "What do I care what they say?

What can they say that will be worse than what has been said?"

Sam backed down the steps. He had blundered, and feared Will's wrath.

"Of course, I didn't mean--" he stammered.

"Never mind," interrupted Will, "I have an errand for you to do. Go to the town clerk, and get a blank application for a marriage license."

"A--a what?" gasped Sam.

"I'm not crazy, Sam," said Will, who was much amused by Sam's astonishment. "Do as I've asked, and when there is any news worth telling you shall hear it first."

Sam started off without another word, and Will returned to his father and Barbara.

When Sam made his errand known to Mr. Wiggins, the town clerk, he was laughed at.

"No foolin' now," said Sam, impatiently. "I want one of them applications, and I want it quick."

"There you are," replied Mr. Wiggin, as he handed Sam the desired blank.

"Better fill it out right here, Sam, and then I can give you the license without any delay."

"No; I guess I won't fill it out jest now," drawled Sam, with a grin.

"Perhaps you ain't quite sure of the lady's age."

"That's it, I ain't."

"I always thought that you'd get married sometime, Sam."

Sam had been joked so often about matrimony that it seldom annoyed him, and now that his inquisitor was wholly on the wrong scent he was greatly amused.

"Well," he replied, "most men do marry sooner or later."

"And in your case it's a good deal later," chuckled Mr. Wiggins.

"Yes; but you see I've seen so many blamed fools get married 'fore they'd cut all their second teeth I've kinder hung off," Sam retorted.

"Miss Sawyer's a nice kind of woman," ventured Mr. Wiggins, as he coughed, and looked at a picture on the wall. The grin on Sam's face disappeared.

"Who said anything about her?" he demanded, indignantly.

"I said that she was a nice kind of a woman. No harm in that, is there?"

Mr. Wiggins mildly asked, as he turned his weak little eyes on Sam, who did not dare to meet them with his own.

"No," grunted Sam, as he turned to go; "but I must be goin'."

"Good luck to you," called Mr. Wiggins, as Sam ran down the steps.

The town clerk and his wife had callers that evening, and Mr. Wiggins, thinking that the joke was too good to keep, told them of Sam's errand, not forgetting to say that during their conversation Miss Sawyer's name had been mentioned.

News germs spread faster and farther than any other kind of bugs. The next afternoon Miss Sawyer heard from reliable sources that she was to be married to Mr. Samuel Billings a week from Thursday at seven o'clock in the evening by the Rev. Thomas Morton, of Uphill Centre, who had married her father and mother forty years before. She also heard that her wedding-gown was to be of gray and white foulard silk, with lace tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, and that her other things were just _lovely_. There was more, but she fainted and missed it. Poor Lizzie, it was cruel, terribly cruel.

When Sam returned to the parsonage Will was at the door waiting for him.

"The old fool thought it was for me," said Sam.

"Your turn may come next," Will replied. "Got a pencil?"

"Yes."

"Then read the questions, and write the answers as I give them." Sam obeyed, though with difficulty, because his lantern flickered, and he was not "much at writin' anyhow."

"Goin' to be married to-night, Billy?" asked Sam, when the application had been filled out.

"Never mind; go and get the license," replied Will.

When Mr. Wiggins read the names on the blank which Sam brought on his second visit, he dropped the paper and jumped back with horror. Sam laughed outright as he picked it up and held it out to the fear-stricken man.

"Don't be scared," he said; "n.o.body in the parsonage touched it. I wrote it myself just as Billy Flint told me to."

Mr. Wiggins felt relieved and angry.

"Why didn't you tell me who it was for?" he demanded.

"'Cause you jumped at the answer without givin' me a chance," retorted Sam.

Without another word the town clerk made out the license, and when it was finished gave it to Sam, who started quickly for the door.

"Next time," said Mr. Wiggins, stiffly, "you'll save yourself trouble by not being so close-mouthed."

"And next time," replied Sam, "you'd better not jump the creek till you get to it."

When Sam returned Will picked up the paper that was placed on the top step, thanked him, and turned to reenter the house.

"Say, Billy," said Sam, "what am I goin' to say to folks when they ask me?"

"Tell them all that you know."

"And s'posin' they asked me if you was married?"

"Tell them that if they live long enough they'll know sometime," replied Will, as he shut the door, and ran lightly up the stairs to the sickroom. Barbara met him at the door with her finger on her lips cautioning silence.