The large, bearded man looked so exceedingly grave that Podge burst out laughing. "Don't you know," she wrote, "that the propensity to plague a man dependent on you is inherent in every healthy woman?" He wrote, "I do know it, and it's a crime!" Podge thought to herself "This old man is dreadfully serious and suspicious sometimes." As Duff Salter relapsed into silence, gazing on the fire, the voice of Calvin Van de Lear was heard by Podge, pitched in a low and confident key, from the parlor side: "I called, Agnes, when I thought sufficient time had elapsed since the troubles here, to express my deep interest in you, and to find you, I hoped, with a disposition to turn to the sunny side of life's affairs." "I am not ready to take more than a necessary part in anything outside of this house," replied Agnes. "My mind is altogether preoccupied. I thank you for your good wishes, Mr. Van de Lear." "Now do be less formal," said the young man persuasively. "I have always been Cal. before--short and easy, Cal. Van de Lear. _You_ might call me almost anything, Aggy." "I have changed, sir. Our afflictions have taught me that I am no longer a girl." "You won't call me Cal., then?" "No, Mr. Van de Lear." "I see how it is," exclaimed the visitor. "You think because I am studying for orders I must be looked up to. Aggy, that's got nothing to do with social things. When I take the governor's place in our pulpit I shall make my sermons for this generation altogether crack, sentimental sermons, and drive away dull care. That's my understanding of the good shepherd." "Mr. Van de Lear, there are some cares so natural that they are almost consolation. Under the pressure of them we draw nearer to happiness. What merry words should be said to those who were bred under this roof in such misfortunes as I have now--as the absent have?" Podge saw Agnes put her handkerchief to her face, and her neck shake a minute convulsively. Duff Salter here sneezed loudly: "Jericho! Jerichew! Je-ry-cho-o!" He produced a tortoise-shell snuff-box, and Podge took a pinch, for fun, and sneezed until the tears came to her eyes and her hair was shaken down. She wrote on the tablets, "Men could eat dirt and enjoy it." He replied, "At last dirt eats all the men." "It's to get rid of them!" wrote Podge. "My boys at school are dirty by inclination. They will chew anything from a piece of India rubber shoe to slippery elm and liquorice root. One piece of liquorice will demoralize a whole class. They pass it around." Duff Salter replied, "The boys must have something in their mouths; the girls in their heads!" "But not liquorice root," added Podge. "No; they put the boys in their heads!" "Pshaw!" wrote Podge, "girls don't like boys. They like nice old men who will pet them." Here Podge ran out of the room and the conversation in the front parlor was renewed. The voice of Calvin Van de Lear said: