Naturally of a perfectly frank nature, the situation was bound to irk his mind ceaselessly. Marty and his parents feared a sudden revelation of the truth, too; so that every knock on the kitchen door during an evening gave each of the three a sharp and distinct shock. One evening Marty heard somebody drive into the yard after supper and he ran hurriedly to open the porch door. He was always expecting to have to head off some person not in the secret who would appear with the news of Mr. Broxton Day's state. "Who is it, Marty?" shrilled his equally anxious mother at the crack of the door. "Hi tunket!" ejaculated the boy, "'tlooks like--why, it is! It's Elder Concannon. What's he want here?" "Never you mind. Go out and hitch his horse in the shelter, and tell him to come right in," ordered Aunt 'Mira. "Dear me! where's your manners, Marty Day?" "Well, _he's_ safe enough," muttered Marty, starting for the shed. CHAPTER VIII LOTTIE SEEKS A FRIEND Elder Concannon came in apparently in a cheerful mood. He was not a frequent caller at the Day house; he never had been, indeed. But he liked to play a game of checkers with Janice, whom he considered quite a scientific player for a young person. "I drove around by Brother Middler's on an errand--church business," explained the elder; "but he wasn't at home. Gone over to Bowling to marry a couple." "Who air they?" asked Aunt 'Mira, at once interested. "Every married woman is deeply int'rested in ev'ry other woman's marriage," Uncle Jason declared. "Havin' got one poor man inter captivity she's hopin' all her sisters'll have as good luck. Who _is_ the poor feller that's got to do penance for his sins, Elder?" "I don't see but you are both equally int'rested, Brother Day," chuckled the elder. "It's Sam Holder and Susie Pickberry." "Another of them Pickberry gals gittin' merried, eh?" ejaculated Aunt 'Mira. "Well, there are a lot of them to get married," the elder said. "All the Pickberrys had big families." "And none of 'em much good," growled Uncle Jason. "That may be," agreed the elder. "It does seem as though 'bout the only command in the Scriptures that any of 'em knew, was that one about 'increase and multiply and fill the earth.' And they are given to marrying young," pursued the elder reflectively. "This Sue is a bouncing big gal; but she's barely sixteen year old." "Hardly sixteen!" exclaimed Janice. "Cricky!" was Marty's comment, he having come in after blanketing the elder's colt. "You're getting to be an old maid, Janice, 'cordin' to that. You'd better stir about and look yourself up a husband 'fore they put you on the shelf." Janice looked into his freckled face reflectively. "I've sometimes thought it was too bad they won't let first cousins marry, Marty," she said. "They do, Janice, except in a few of the States," observed Elder Concannon, looking at the girl until she blushed as rosily as had Marty. As the laugh at this subsided, the elder went on: