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80 "Maggie, do you know that I begin to think our kind host is rather stricken with our Mary; and she, so far as I can see, has no disinclination to his suit. For my part, I should have no objection to the match, provided always that everything else is satisfactory."

"It is only your fancy," answered his wife. She was, however, glad that her husband did not object to what she herself heartily desired.

"He seems to be a very amiable man, well conducted, and to have sufficient means to live upon," continued the father as he walked about the room. "Our daughter, too, is old enough now to enter into the holy state of matrimony."

After supper, the visitor, having partaken of the generous wine of his host, listened with a smiling face to the offer which the master of the house, in a modest manner, made for the hand of his daughter Mary. The father, having considered a little, said,—"I am much pleased with you and your kind proposal. Since you have enough to live upon, and ask for no dowry, I am willing that my daughter should become your wife. May you be happy and blessed in your children."

Three months afterwards the Evil Eye wedded his beautiful wife. The grass and weeds disappeared from the long avenue of poplar trees leading to the house, trodden down by the horses and carriages of the friends