"
"I know what yer driving at, Zeb. Write yer letter and I'll
deliver it with my own hands."
"Well, now, I'm satisfied, I can stay on and fight it out with a
clear mind. When Zeke marched away last summer, I thought it was
all up with me; and I can tell you that any fighting that's to do
about Boston will be fun compared with the fighting I did while
hoeing corn and mowing grass. But I don't believe that Susie
Rolliffe is promised to Zeke Watkins, or any one else yet, and I'm
going to give her a chance to refuse me plump."
"That's the way to do it, Zeb," said the bachelor cobbler, with an
emphasis that would indicate much successful experience. "Asking a
girl plump is like standing up in a fair fight. It gives the girl
a chance to bowl you over, if that's her mind, so there can't be
any mistake about it; and it seems to me the women-folks ought to
have all the chances that in any way belong to them. They have got
few enough anyhow."
"And you think it'll end in my being bowled over?"
"How should I know, or you either, unless you make a square trial?
You're such a strapping, fighting feller that nothing but a
cannon-ball or a woman ever will knock you off your pins.
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