"I don't never git no chance; and if I did I'd be tongue-tied, sure as the world." "Then you'll have to write it, and I'll help you!" concluded Rhoda Jane with energy. She arose as she spoke, picked up the candle, stepped quickly to a corner shelf in the next room, whence she brought an inkstand and a quill pen. Setting these down on the kitchen table, she went back, and opening a bureau drawer where miscellaneous articles were kept, fished out from its depths a sheet of foolscap, which she spread out beside the inkstand. "That ain't nice enough," said Gotobed, eyeing it disapprovingly. "Make it up on that and get better at the store to-morrow to copy it onto," returned his sister. "Now you set down and go at it like a man; or maybe I'd better say like a woman," she added sarcastically. "If I'd only had an edication!" groaned Gotobed, taking up the pen; "but it's mighty hard on a feller--such things as this is--when he hasn't." "Well, do the best you kin, and mebbe it'll come out right for all. You're good-lookin' and got a good trade and can make a good livin' for her. Just tell her that; and tell her you think she's as purty as a picter, and good-tempered, and knows a lot; and that you worship the ground she walks on, and won't never let the wind blow rough on her, won't never say no cross words to her, and--and a lot more o' such stuff; that's what girls like." "Well, I s'pose you'd ought to know, seeing you belong to the sect; but it's a heap easier for you to say it than for me to git it writ down in black and white," he sighed. "I declare I'm clear beat out with you a'most," said Rhoda Jane, snuffing the candle impatiently; "and I've a great mind to leave you to make it up by yourself." But she went on coaxing, suggesting and prompting, till between them they had composed an epistle which was satisfactory to her though not to her brother. "It's nigh onto three o'clock, and I'm awful tired and sleepy," she remarked, as at last they separated and sought their beds. The next day Gotobed searched the town for letter paper and bought half a quire of the best he could find. During the next week all his leisure moments were spent in making revised and improved copies of his and Rhoda Jane's joint composition. He had used his last sheet, and seized with a fit of desperation, he selected the one which seemed to him the least faulty and sent it by his sister. Mrs. Keith, opening the door in answer to Rhoda Jane's knock, was struck with the peculiar expression of the girl's face--a mixture of pride, condescension and exultation. "Good evenin' Mis' Keith. Where's Mildred?" she said, stepping in and glancing about the room with an air of importance, "I want to see her pertickler; got somethin' fur her," and a conscious glance at the missive in her hand enlightened the quick-witted lady as to its nature.