But Marthy got after him and said: "Eric, they're goin' to make you President for the third term. Oh, what's that old tradition got to do with it? Can't they change it? Well, you mark my words, like as not you'll settle down and live in the White House the rest of your life. You'd ought to have a wife, Eric, and be raisin' some childern to comfort your declining years. What would Will and me have done without you? I'm gettin' old, Eric, and I'd kind o' like to see how it feels to be a grandmother, before they take me out to the--" But that was a word Rudd could never frame even in his thoughts. Eric, being a mighty good boy, listened to his mother, as always. And Marthy looked everywhere for an ideal woman, and when she found one, Eric fell in love with her right away. It is not every child that is so dutiful as that. The marriage is to take place shortly and Rudd is very busy with the details. He will go on to Washington, of course--of evenings. In fact, the wedding is to be in the evening, so that he won't have to miss any time at the shop. There are so many people coming in every day and asking for shoes, that he wouldn't dare be away. Martha is insisting on Will's buying a dress soot for the festivities, but he is in doubt about that. Martha, though, shall have the finest dress in the land, for she is more beautiful even than Eric's bride, and she doesn't look a day older than she did when she was a bride herself. A body would never guess how many years ago that was. The White House is going to be all lit up, and a lot of big folks will be there--a couple of kings, like as not. There will be fried chicken for dinner and ice-cream--mixed, maybe, chocolate and vanella, and p'raps a streak of strawb'ry. And there will be enough so's everybody can have two plates. Marthy will prob'ly bake the cake herself, if she can get that old White House stove to working right. Rudd has a great surprise in store for her. He's going to tell a good one on Marthy. At just the proper moment he's going to lean over--Lord, he hopes he can keep his face straight--and say, kind of offhand: "Do you remember, Marthy, the time when you was makin' little baby-clothes for the President of the United States here, and you says to me--you see, Eric, she'd made me quit smokin', herself, but she plumb forgot all about that--and she says to me, s'she, 'Why don't you smoke your pipe any more, Will?' she says. And I says, 'I'd kind o' got out of the habit, Marthy,' s'I, 'but I guess I'll git back in,' s'I. I said it right off like that, 'I guess I'll git back in!' s'I. Remember, Marthy?" THE HAPPIEST MAN IN IOWAY