"That was what Elkanah's proposal amounted to.

Ha! ha! Deary me! When he said 'proposal,' I own up for a minute I didn't know WHAT was comin'.

After Kyan I was prepared for 'most anything.

But he told me that Lurany Phelps, who the parish committee had counted on to keep house for Mr.Ellery, had sent word her sister was sick and couldn't be left, and that somebody must be hired right off 'cause the minister's expected by day after to-morrow's coach.
And they'd gone over every likely candidate in town till it simmered down to Mehitable Burgess.

And Cap'n Zeb Mayo spoke right up in the committee meetin' and gave out that if Mehitable kept house for Mr.
Ellery he, for one, wouldn't come to church.