Page:Saxe Holm's Stories, Series Two.djvu/167

Rh with us at Parson Allen's this winter, the sooner we drive over and see the old gentleman and break the news to him, the better. Oh, Jim!"—and I roared at the bare thought of how queer a look the thing had on the face of it "what will become of us if the parson has a keen sense of humor! Two college boys rusticated for serious misconduct, arriving at the door of his house with a young miss in their charge. I never thought of this before. It 's enough to kill one!"

Jim laughed, too. He could not help it. But he looked very uneasy.

"It is awkward," he said; "there 's no doubt about that! I 'd rather face the President again than this old parson, but I 've got a conviction that this thing is going to be all of a piece right straight through, and that the parson 'll be on my side."

"The parson's wife is more important, I reckon," said I. "It 'll all turn on how she takes it."

"Well, I think she 's all right," Jim replied. "Old Curtis, my guardian, knows her. He says she 's an angel; he knew her before she was married, and something in the dear old man's face, when he spoke of her, made me wonder if it was n't for her sake he 'd lived an old bachelor all his life. She was a Quaker, he said, and they have n't ever had any children. You know that it was Curtis who asked the President to send us here, don't you?"

I had not known this; it gave me a great sense