I have never ceased to regret that hollow bit of chivalry.  Was it honest, genuine, open?  No!  Why will men at critical junctures stoop to such trickery?  Aunt Mollie said I might think that tenderline was fresh-killed; but not so—­she has fried it last December and put it down in its own juice in a four-gallon crock, and now look how fresh it come out!  She seemed as proud as if she had invented something.  She had a right to be.  It was a charming notion and I could have eaten the rest of the crock—­but, no matter.  Half a dozen biscuits copiously gummed up with preserves of one kind or another would do as well—­almost.

So Aunt Mollie showed me objects of interest in the room, including her new carpet sweeper, a stuffed road runner, a ship built in a bottle, and the coloured crayon portraits of herself and Uncle Henry, wearing blue clothes and gold jewellery and white collars and ecru neckties.  Also, the marriage certificate.  This was no mere official certificate.  It was the kind that costs three dollars flat, over and above what you give to the party that does it for you, being genuine steel-engraved, with a beautiful bridal couple under a floral bell, the groom in severe evening dress, and liberally spotted with cupids and pigeons.  It is worth the money and an ornament to any wall, especially in the gilt frame.

Aunt Mollie seemed as proud of this document as she had been with the tenderloin.  I scanned it word by word for her pleasure.  I noticed especially the date.  Aunt Mollie said that her and Henry were now in the fortieth year on this place, and it had changed in looks a whole lot since they came here.  I again looked at the date of the certificate.

Ma Pettengill said, well, we must be getting on, and they must both come over to the Arrowhead for a day right soon.  And Uncle Henry said here was a quart bottle of his peach brandy, going on eight year old, and would I take it along back with me and try it?  Parties had told him it was good; but he didn’t know—­mebbe so, mebbe not.  He’d like to know what I thought.  It seemed little enough to do to bring a bit of gladness into this old gentleman’s life, and I was not the man to wound him by refusal.  It was as if Michelangelo had said “Come on round to the Sistine Chapel this afternoon and look over a little thing I’ve dashed off.”  If he had brought two bottles instead of one my answer would have been the same.

So we were out on our refreshed horses and heading home; and I said, without loss of time, that Aunt Mollie might have a good heart and a cunning way with pork interiors, and it was none of my business, anyway; but, nevertheless, she had mentioned forty long years with this amateur saloon keeper, whereas her marriage certificate was dated but one year previous, in figures all too shamefully legible.  So what about it?  I said I mind observing the underworld from time to time; but I like to be warned in advance, even when its denizens were such a charming, bright-eyed winter-apple-cheeked old couple as the two we were now leaving.