But, alas! Archie had to choose some one else. He said afterward--"I had a great mind to choose you again, but I knew they'd laugh and say it wasn't fair. But I didn't care at all for Emma Watkins." They wound up with "Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grows." Then Janie Byerly took her betrothed's hand and stood in the middle of the room. "Joe and I are to be married in October somewhere about the middle. We haven't set the day yet, but you'll all know it and I want a great crowd to come and see the knot tied. Then we're going to Cincinnati on Joe's boat to visit his folks, and if I like it first-class we may settle there. I hope you have all had a good time." They said they had in a shout. "I'm coming over to see your pretty frocks," Janie whispered to Daffodil. "My, I shall be so busy that my head will spin." Of course Archie had to see her home, but as Ned's girl was already home, he walked with them and did most of the talking, to Archie's chagrin. And he ended with--"I've so much to tell you. I'm coming over right soon." CHAPTER XI THE WOOF OF DAILY THINGS "Dilly, you're not worth shucks since you came back!" exclaimed the boy in a severely upbraiding tone. "You don't do nothin' as you used, you just sit and moon. Do you want to go back to that old man? I sh'd think you'd been awful dull." "Do you talk that way at school?" "Oh, well, a fellow needn't be so fussy at home." "What would you like me to do? You are off with the boys----" "That's because you're no good. You don't run races nor climb trees nor wade in the brook to catch frogs, nor jump--I'll bet you don't know how to jump any more. And you were a staver!" "Girls leave off those things. And you are a good deal younger, and ought to have a boy's good times. I must sew and spin and help keep house and work in the garden to take care of the flowers and learn to cook." "My! I wouldn't be a girl for anything! Dilly, who will you marry?" Her face was scarlet. Must a girl marry? She understood now the drift of the talk she had unwittingly overheard. And her cheek burned thinking that she had been offered and declined. "I'm not going to marry any one in a good while," she returned gravely. "Tim Garvin asked me----" he looked at her hesitatingly. "Well?" "If he might come round. He thinks you sing like a mocking bird. And he says he likes yellow hair. I don't. I wish yours was black and that you had red cheeks and that you'd laugh real loud, and want to play games." "There are plenty of little girls, Felix, who are ready for any sort of fun."