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HERE THE CHASE
Her eyes, clear and frank as a child's, met his, untroubled. The sleeve of the scarlet reefer brushed his arm. "Come on, Billy; let's go tell ma."
"Where you been, May Belle, child?" Ma peered over the rim of her "nigh-to" glasses, mildly censorious. "Law sakes! how red your cheeks are! "What's she been doin', Billy, to get het up this way ? ' '
"Oh, ma!" May Belle flung herself down beside the rocker. "Oh, ma ! I — Billy — we — oh ! you tell her, Billy; I dont know how."
The rocker suspended its serene creaking as, for the space of ten solemn ticks of the old grandfather's clock, the eyes of ma sought Billy's in startled questioning.
"Yes, ma'am," the boy nodded; "it's true. We're going to be married, May Belle and me."
' ' Heart alive ! ' ' murmured the mother, helplessly. She looked from one to the other, readjusting her world. May Belle — her baby — grown up? And little, freckled, neighbor
CAME TO AN END
boy Billy, this tall young fellow, with the new, glad manliness in his eyes? Suddenly her arms went out to the both of them, gathering them in. "If you aint the surprisingest children, ' ' she laughed shakily. ' ' But I'm glad it's you, Billy — if my little girl had t' grow up."
Later, when the dusk warned the new lover of chores and evening duties to be done, the mother, watching May Belle lift open, frank lips for his kiss, smiled wisely to herself, remembering very-long-ago things. "She's only a child," she murmured; "she aint waked up — yet. But that'll come in good time, Lord willin' — in good time."
That very evening ma started to cut out the wedding-gown.
The autumn days floated lazily by, like the autumn leaves, drifting on the sunshine into yesterday. Thru the scarlet and amber groves. May Belle and Billy wandered staidly, no longer racing each other to the turn