"Well," said the sweet voice, "Jim did marry a mortal woman, but Mary Ann soon made a angel out of her. I knowed Jim Curtis's wife as well as if she'd ben my own child; and no wonder, seein' as she boarded with me and Jonathan nigh on to a year. You see, she was left an orphan, and her uncle that raised her, not bein' well off, give her what schoolin' he could, an' then when she was about sixteen year old he got her first the summer school in our deestric, and then, as she suited the folks, the d'rectors they let her have it fur the winter. I was sort o' feared for her to tackle the winter school, seein' as some of the big boys, and girls, too, for that matter, 's pritty obstreperous; but Rhody she laughed and tossed her head an' said, 'I'll get along, Aunt Nancy!' (You know everybody in the neighborhood calls me Aunt Nancy, and Rhody she picked it up as natral as could be.) "Well, she did manage somehow, an' never had a bit of trouble. An' I use ter watch o' evenin's for her to come, allus smilin', and with somethin' funny to tell about the scholars. I declare to you, Mis' Johnson, if she'd ben our own, Jonathan an' me couldn't a sot more by her. Why, whenever it was rainy or snowy the ole man would saddle a horse an' go for her, an' she'd look that cute, settin' behin' on ole Molly an' holdin' on to the ole man! "One cold evenin' (it was a Friday evenin', too--I'll never forgit it), jist as Jonathan got the saddle on the mare, we heard sleigh-bells, for I was out at the fence talkin' to the ole man, an' who should come sailin' up the road, large as life, but Jim Curtis in his new sleigh, with our Rhody, smilin' and rosy, beside him. 'There, ole man,' says I, 'your cake's dough.' And I declare fur it, ef he warn't that cut up he could scarce be civil to the youngsters. "Of course you know how it was after that--no needcessity fur the ole man botherin' any more; not 'at it was bother, for he allus liked goin' fur Rhody; but laws! Jim was allus on hand, no matter how the weather was, an' he tuk her to her uncle's two or three times, an' to meetin' Sundays, an' I up an' tole her one day that I b'lieved I'd ask Jim to board with us, an' her face got mighty red, an' she stepped up an' put both arms roun' my neck, she was such a lovin' leetle critter, an' she says, 'You aint mad, Aunt Nancy, are you? You like Jim, don't you?' "'Well,' says I, 'ef I don't, somebody else does; but I'd like to know what this deestric's goin' to do fur a teacher.' "'Oh,' she says, blushin' more 'an ever, 'I am goin' to teach my school out.' "'An' then what?' says I. "'Then I'll tell you,' she says, and run off laughin'. "So I says to the ole man that night, after we'd gone to bed, says I, 'Jonathan, Rhody is goin' to marry Jim Curtis, an' I dunno whether to be glad or sorry.'