“Oh, bother the temper! I am willing to risk it. Laying all jokes aside, I love you devotedly, and won’t you promise to be my wife?” “If I lose my temper and break your head with the broom handle, you won’t beat me?” “No.” “If I break up the furniture, while in a passion, you’ll go and buy more?” “Yes.” “Very well, I’ll take your case under advisement, and give you an answer when we get back home, provided you don’t conclude to withdraw the proposition before it is too late.” “See here, Scottie, this is a matter of too much importance to me to be made the subject of a joke; I don’t believe you mean to wound my feelings, yet I had rather you would not use so much levity about it. I loved you at first sight, and meant to ask you then to marry me, but your father seemed to dislike me so that I was afraid.” “In the first place, Mr. Burk----” “Pshaw! Scottie, don’t call me Mr. Burk, but call me Ralleigh.” “If it pleases you, then be it so. Well, Ralleigh Burk, in the first place, I am not joking; and in the second place, you were very much mistaken when you concluded that my father disliked you. He had a supreme contempt for what he called stern-wheel politicians.” “Oh, yes, I see; and he set me down in his mind as a stern-wheel politician.” “I don’t say that, mind you, but he looked upon you as the villagers did on the old dog Tray, who was found in bad company. You see how it is, don’t you?” “I think I do.” “Well, now, I think my father would forgive you if you could satisfy him that you had quit politics and gone into some legitimate business.” “Do you, indeed? how kind that would be of him! but suppose I had not quit politics, and that I had not gone into any legitimate business--in fact, suppose it should appear that I have not gone into anything except debt?” “I think it would prevent your going into our family.” “Then I suppose he would not object to my going head foremost into the Mississippi river?” “Oh, by no means; I think he would rather see you do that than to see you in the Mississippi Legislature.” “And may I ask which catastrophe would be most to your liking?” “The cold water treatment, by long odds.” “Thank you. I must say that I admire your candor, but not your sentiment.” “Spoken like a man; I glory in your grit. You’re on my platform, for I have sworn never to marry a man unless I loved him.” “Scottie, you are a little darling, and that’s a fact, and I want you to try to love me if you can; and if you can’t, just tell me so, and I’ll either go to the bottom of the river or to the Mississippi Legislature, and never bother you any more.” “Hold your head down, so I can whisper something in your ear: I don’t think you will have to drown yourself, or go to the Legislature.” “No? oh, won’t that be jolly! You have removed a mountain from my mind. Let us go dance a while, else I’ll do something foolish.”