Aunt ‘Liza’s face flushed as she turned without a word to make the old rolling pin chuckle again across the pie dough. Sally had struck a tender chord rather roughly. All felt it. Mrs. Willis, with motherly instinct, turned their thoughts quickly, by saying-- “Come, girls, stop teasing Aunt ‘Liza, and turn on me.” “All right, you tell us how your beau popped the question,” said Sally. “No, I won’t tell you that; but I’ll tell you about an apple tree romance with a proposal in it, if you wish.” “Oh, jolly, jolly!” The girls dropped their apples and clapped their approval. “Who was it about? Not you, mother?” asked Mary, a little anxiously. “No, not me exactly, but I was in the fun. It is about John Watkins; you remember him, Aunt ‘Liza?” “Yes, I reckon I do, lazy old scamp!” came the tart response. “After Maria died he wouldn’t do nuthin’ but read poetry and chase around tryin’ to git another wife to raise his pack o’ young uns--think I did know him.” “Well, it’s ’bout his proposing to Jerusha Jones that I was going to tell.” The girls were all interested. “Oh, come now, you must work or I won’t talk.” The paring knives began to fly again. “Well, Jerusha was one of my chums, as jolly a girl as you ever saw, pretty, too; and pranks!--what that girl could not think of was hardly worth trying. The fellows were all crazy over her, but she wouldn’t be serious with any of them. “Well, Jerusha and Mary Snow--that’s the one this chicken is named for--and I were like triplets, together all the time, and we knew one another’s secrets and shared all our fun and trouble. For we had our troubles, hard work a-plenty, and precious little fun except what we made, but then that’s the best kind anyway. “Well, as I was saying, Jerusha had plenty of strings to her bow, but that didn’t make any difference to Mr. Watkins. When his wife, Maria, died, he wanted another, of course, and no one but the best was good enough, that is, to begin with. He changed his mind later and took what he could get.” “Yes, and he got a regular Tartar, too,” supplemented Aunt ‘Liza, “just as mean as Maria was good--served him right.” “But what was the apple tree romance, mother?” Mary voiced the impatience of the listeners. “I’m coming to it, girlie. You know we used to get up home dramatics, and Mr. Watkins, being rather literary in his tastes, used to play on the stage with us. Jerusha was generally the star with him, and they were fine, too. I guess that’s how he came to take to Jerusha afterwards. He got used to making love to her. “One night when Mary and I went over to Jones’s, we found Jerusha all flustered over something. “‘It’s coming, girls, it’s coming,’ she broke out, clasping her hands and acting stage-struck. “‘How am I to meet it--to meet it?’ She acted so tragic it half scared us. “‘For goodness’ sake, what’s the matter?’ I guess I half screamed. “Jerusha threw herself in a chair and laughed hysterically. Of a sudden she stopped--