"For the land's sake, Abel Smith, do hold your tongue. Here you've got to be as big a talker as old Deacon Slim, that I used to hear about, who begun the minute he woke up and never stopped till his wife tied his mouth shut at night. Even then----" "Mercy, Mercy! Take care. Set me a good example, if you can; but don't go to denying that this is a growin' village." "I've no call to deny it. Why should I? But, say, Abel, just step round to the store, won't you, an' buy me some of that turkey red calico was brought in on the last team from the East. I'd admire to make Kitty a rising sun quilt for her bedroom. 'Twould be so 'propriate, too." "Fiddlesticks! Not a yard of stuff will I ever buy for you to set an' snip, snip, like you used to in the woods. We've got something else to do now. As for Kit, between the Fort folks and the Indians, she's had so many things give her a'ready, she won't have room to put 'em. The idee! Them two children gettin' married. Seems just like play make believe." "Well, there ain't no make believe. It's the best thing 't ever happened to Chicago. Wonderful how they both 'pear to love the old hole in the mud," answered Mercy. "Yes, ain't it? To hear Gaspar talk, you'd think he'd been to Congress, let alone bein' President. All about the 'possibilities of the location,' the 'fertility of the soil,' the 'big canawl,' and the whole endurin' business; why, I tell you, it badgers my wits to foller him." "Wouldn't try, then, if I was you. Poor old wits 'most wore out, any how, and better save what's left for this tavern business. Between you and your fiddle, thinkin' you've got to amuse your guests, I'm about beat out. All the drudgery comes on _me_, same's it always did." "Drudgery, Mercy? Now, come. Take it easy. Hain't Kitty fetched you a couple of squaws to do your steps and dish washin'? All you have to do is to cook and----" "Oh! go along, Abel, and get me that calico. Don't set there till you take root. I ain't a-complainin', an' I 'low I'm as much looked up to here in Chicago without my bedstead as I was in the woods with it." "Looked up to? I should say so. There ain't a woman in the settlement holds her head as top-lofty as you do. And with good reason, I 'low. I don't praise you often, ma, but when I do, I mean it. If you hadn't been smarter 'n the average, and had more gumption to boot, you'd never been asked in to help them army women cook Kitty's weddin' supper. By the way, where are the youngsters now? I hain't seen 'em to-day." "Off over the prairie on their horses, just as they used to be when they were little tackers. I never saw bridal folks like them; from the very first not hangin' round by themselves, but mixing with everybody, same's usual, and beginning right away to do all the good they can with Gaspar's money. Off now to see some folks burned their own barn up----" "W-H-A-T?" demanded Abel, with paling face.