One, two, three, ——, ——, ——, ——, ——, ——, ——, ——, twelve, went the clock in the old, low Sutliff mansion; a light two-horse wagon, the bed filled with hay as if covering a “grist,” was backed out of the barn; two strong horses were attached; warm kisses were administered to ruby lips; and a couple of well-wrapped female forms ascended to the seat; a delicately gloved hand laid hold of the lines, and the team sped briskly towards the “Kinsman woods.” IV. Deacon Andrews, in the old farm house still standing on the brink of the little ravine south of the hamlet of Lindenville, had put up his morning prayer for the drowning host of Pharaoh, the Greeks, the Romans and the Jews, said “Amen” and arisen from his knees, when his wife, looking out of the window, exclaimed: “See, husband, there’s the Sutliff team; but who is driving? As I live, if it isn’t a couple of girls, and all the way up from Vernon so early as this! What can they want?” “Going to the ‘Harbor’ with _grain_, I presume; likely the men folks are busy.” “But then I didn’t know the Sutliffs have any girls.” “Well, wife, likely they’ve hired the team to some of the neighbors. You start the children out after chestnuts, quick.” There was a lively scampering of young Andrews to the woods; a hasty breakfasting of girls and horses; a close examination of the sacks under the hay to see if all was right; a pleasant “good morning,” and the team went northward and the deacon to his work, mentally exclaiming: “Great and marvelous are the works of the Almighty—and Plumb and Sut—” but he checked the irreverent conclusion. V. It was high noon at Jefferson, and Ben Wade brought his fist down upon the cover of the volume of Blackstone he had closed, as he arose to go to dinner, and ejaculated, “Who the d—l is that, Gid?” The pleasant, bland countenanced gentleman to whom these words were addressed looked up, and there in front of the little office bearing the unpretentious sign, “GIDDINGS & WADE, ATTORNEYS AT LAW.” were two plump, rosy-cheeked girls, each engaged in hitching a horse. “Zounds, Ben, you ought to know your Trumbull county friends. It hasn’t been so long since you taught school at the Center of Hartfort that you should have forgotten the Bushnells and the Plumbs.” “The h—ll! I wonder if those two lasses can be the little Mollies I used to enjoy so much.” “They are the Miss Bushnell and Miss Plumb I met at Sutliff’s a few days ago, though I do not know their names.” The two attorneys, as yet unknown to fame, attended, without fees, to the consultation of the young ladies, treated them and theirs to the best fare of him who was afterwards well known in _Railroad_ circles as “Anno Mundi,” and then sent them forward with a kind letter of introduction to “Doctor” Henry Harris, the most likely man to greet them. VI.