• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

"Then I think I shall spend the evening at your house instead. I seldom have a chance to talk to her."

"But they say a husking bee is such—" Slowly she began to realize what he had said.

"John! Why should you want to talk to Mercy?"

His eyes twinkled. "Why do you think I come so often?"

"But I thought—we all thought—I mean—"

"It has always been Mercy, from the very beginning. Didn't you guess that?"

"Oh John!" In a burst of incredulous joy Kit flung both arms rapturously about his neck. With a startled glance up the road, John tactfully freed himself. His very ears were pink, but his eyes were shining down at her.

"I'm glad you approve," he said. "Do you think I have a chance, Kit?"

"A chance! Just you try! Oh, John, I'm so happy I could dance a jig!"

"I can't try yet," he reminded her soberly. "I have nothing to offer her, nothing at all."

"You'll have a church of your own some day. Only—could Mercy—do you think she could manage a minister's household? There are so many things Mercy can't do, John."

"Then I will do them for her," he said quietly. "I don't want a wife to wait on me. For Mercy just to be what she is—I could never do enough to make up for it."

"Then tell her, tonight, John," she urged, remembering the longing in Mercy's eyes.

"Perhaps," he answered again. "We shall see."

Walking home past Meeting House Square Kit could hardly keep from dancing. She wanted to shout and sing. Mercy and John Holbrook! How right! How exactly, unbelievably right! How could she keep from telling someone? They must see that she was bursting with excitement. Judith would surely—

Judith! Her jubilant feet came suddenly to a halt. How could she have forgotten? Ought she to have said something to John, warned him somehow? No, she could hardly have done that, in fairness to Judith. He was so completely unaware, so serious and shy, as Judith herself had said, so wrapped in his books and his dreams of Mercy that he had never even noticed that Judith had set her cap for him. What was this something that Judith was so sure was going to happen tonight? What sort of scheme did Judith have up her sleeve?

Well, if he doesn't go to the husking bee, nothing can happen, she thought practically. And who knows, if he's there with Mercy—Oh dear, Judith is going to mind terribly. But she is so proud. She'll put her nose in the air and pretend she never had such an idea in her head. And she'll get over it, I know, because John isn't really suitable for Judith. If only he will speak tonight!

Judith lingered exasperatingly in front of the little mirror that evening. She was wearing the new blue wool dress for the first time, with a snowy white collar and deep cuffs, and she had never looked lovelier. Her eyes were a deep blue in the candlelight, the clear white of her skin flushed with a secret excitement. Kit fidgeted impatiently. It didn't matter how she looked. William was waiting already, and they must all get away quickly before John arrived. If only Aunt Rachel and Uncle Matthew could find something to do, and Mercy could be sitting alone in the firelight!

They were too late, however. John Holbrook stepped inside the door just as the two girls rustled down the stairs, and his eyes were lively with admiration as he waited, with a courtly bow, to let them go ahead of him into the kitchen. Judith tipped back her head and smiled up at him provocatively. Rachel put aside her work, and even Matthew came to the door to see the young folks off.

"I'm so glad you've come," Judith dimpled. "Now we can all walk together."

"I'm not going to the husking," John told her, smiling. "I think I shall stay here and visit with Mercy instead."

"But they're all expecting you. Mercy doesn't mind, do you, Mercy?"

John shook his head, still smiling. There was a reflection of Judith's excitement in his own pale face.

"I think I shall stay here," he insisted. "There is something I want to speak to your father about."

His words had a breath-taking effect. Judith took a step backward, one hand at her throat, and a wave of scarlet