What the father's feelings were as he saw the affection that was springing up between those two young hearts, it is easy to imagine. And when, one day, as they were putting up rail fence, the young man, after a deal of hemming and throat-clearing, asked for the willing hand of the girl, the father for a moment was dumb with astonishment, then exclaimed, "What! talk of marrying, when I have often shown you that time can last at most only a few weeks or months longer!" "I don't see why father must make every body go by his notions," said the daughter that evening, weeping the while. "Annie!" replied the mother, "if there ever was a good man in the world, your father is one." "Yes, I know that, mother," returned the child, "but I'd like to know what there is wrong in getting married. George read to me this very day where the apostle says, 'Marriage is honorable in all.'" "Yes, but, dear, your father says that that was not meant for these last days." "Then why didn't Paul say so, mother?" "Well, dear, I don't see this matter just as your father does. But let us be patient, and not cross him, and if he is in the wrong, he is such a good man I have no doubt he will be set right by and by." It must be confessed, however, that the prospect looked rather gloomy at times to the lover and his chosen. But, like Jacob, he would serve seven, or twice seven, if he might succeed at last. To this end labor, money, every thing was devoted, till at length the old man leaned on him, and could not do without him. Meanwhile, Time—that silent exploder of shallow theories—had set aside many favorite ones of this warrior-adventist, while the mother, true to the intuitive kindness and good sense of her sex, lost no opportunities of advancing, in her own gentle, admirable way, the claims of the persevering suitor, till finally consent was granted, and the wedding-day set, as we have seen. "We came here," said the mother, "because of my health, hoping that the climate might do for me what medicine could not. I now see it was too late. But for my husband and George's sake, who have sacrificed so much on my account, I hope this last settlement may prove productive some day. They have secured a good tract of land, that must be valuable by and by; but we are 'land-poor' now all our money is gone. Another season, however, we hope our crops will bring us something more than the necessaries of life. George is like a child to me; and what is more, he is a Christian. Annie and he are tenderly attached, and despite our present poverty, I shall rejoice in knowing that they are united before I am called away."