“Sit and eat, sir. Let me finish this business. He’s bound to be nominated, you know,” he addressed the whole group. “It’s a ground swell, stirring all over the country. Why, just yesterday the _Nashville Clarion_ stated that the General was unquestionably the choice of the people, in justice to themselves! Here, Hannah, here’s a fine drumstick for some hungry boy. Wait, you haven’t any gravy.” Andrew Jackson looked down the long table at his wife with a look of humble pleading in his eyes that she had never seen there before. “I was going to tell you tomorrow, my love,” he said meekly. “I had warned them all. But that young scoundrel ruined everything.” He glared at Jack Donelson who patted his aunt’s cheek unperturbed. “He’s going to need me, aunt Rachel,” he said gleefully. “I deserve the rough edge of his tongue now, he thinks, maybe even his riding crop on my breeches. But he knows he’s going to be needing all the help he can get, and you too! You’ll need a strong, smart boy around here when all the furor starts, and I’m that boy. Just one more statement, sir.” Jack looked at his uncle, his chin high and firm. “I have a further announcement to make. I came home because I saw your situation and your need for assistance. Also I came home to marry Emily Donelson, if so be she will have me—with or without the consent of this assembled family, I mean to marry Emily.” “And that,” shouted the General, rapping the table with his glass, “I will not countenance!” Rachel got to her feet, startling them all a little. “Then I will countenance it,” she said, in a tone few of them had ever heard her use before. “When young people are in love, that’s the important thing. Maybe you think I don’t know what it is to be in love, Mr. Jackson—but unless your memory is very short, you do! There was a time when you trampled all the difficulties down with fine scorn—and if Jack hasn’t the courage to do as we did, then he’s no nephew of mine!” “My dear—” began Jackson, uncertainly, “I had no idea you felt this way!” “Well, I do feel that way. And I say it’s fine and beautiful for these children who love each other to marry—and I say that nobody is going to oppose it.” Jackson rose, smiling ruefully, and laid a hand on Emily’s cheek. “I seem to be outvoted,” he remarked. “Sorry, sir.” Jack’s grin did not quiver. “You are outvoted. I vote against you—and aunt Rachel—and Emily too, I hope? My dear, are you standing with me against all these frowning elders?” She sprang up and ran to stand beside him. “Oh—I am, I am!” “The matter is now settled.” Jack kissed her gravely while all the children screamed their delight and some of the women began to cry, then, still jauntily, Jack picked up the glass of wine before his aunt’s plate. “A toast to the bride! And to the next President of the United States, Andrew Jackson!”