"I ain't surprised 't your takin' it to heart like that," said the imparter of news. "I may tell you in confidence 't I was nigh to laid out myself in the first hearin' of it. I looked upon it jus' as you did, an' jus' as anybody in their common senses naturally would. It was n't no more 'n was to be expected that me, bein' neat like himself an' unmarried, too, sh'd 'a' struck him 's just about what he was lookin' for. I 'm younger 'n Gran'ma Mullins 'n' Mrs. Macy, an' older 'n 'Liza Em'ly an' Polly Ann. I 've got property, 'n' nobody can 't say 's I have n't always done my duty by whatever crossed my path, even if was nothin' but snow in the winter. All the time 't he was talkin' I was thinkin', 'n' I tell you, Mrs. Lathrop, it's pretty hard work to smile 'n' look interested in a man's meanderin's while you 're tryin' to figure on how you can will your money safe away from him. I was n't calc'latin' on havin' Deacon White get any of my money, I c'n tell you, an' I meant to have that understood right in the beginnin'. Maybe he would n't 'a' liked it; but if he had n't 'a' liked it, he c'd 'a' give me right square up. Lord knows, I never was after him with no net; I don't set about gettin' what I want that way. 'N' I never for one minute have thought o' wantin' the deacon. I 'm used to lookin' everythin' square in the face, 'n' no one as has got eyes could look the deacon in the face 'n' want him. 'N' the more they turned him round 'n' round, the less they'd want him. It ain't in reason's the friend could be found to deny 't he 's as bow-legged as they make 'em. An' then there's his ears! A woman could, maybe, overlook the bow-legs if she held the newspaper high enough; but I don't believe 's any one in kingdom come could overlook them ears. Mr. Kimball says Belgian hares an' Deacon White 's both designed to be catched by their ears. I looked at him to-day 'n' figured on maybe tryin' to tame 'em in a little with a tape nightcap; but then I says to myself, I says: 'No; if he 's to be my husband, I 'll probably have so much to overlook that them ears 'll soon be mice to the mountain o' the rest,' an' so I give up the idea. I had bother enough with tryin' to see where I 'd put him, fer I certainly would n't consider movin' down to his house for a minute, 'n' it was a question 's to a stove in father's room or givin' him double windows for a weddin' present. "'N' then, all of a sudden, he come out with wantin' you!