Then, Rose, you
can sit with me in the Bernese chaise, and you, John, can ride alongside
of us."
"But your wife is going too, isn't she?" inquired John, after a pause.
"I have a child to nurse, and cannot go away," said the farmer's wife.
"And I don't like to be driving about the country on a working-day,"
said Rose.
"Oh nonsense! When a cousin comes, you may take a holiday," urged the
farmer; for he wanted Rose to go with him at once to Farmer Furche's,
that the latter might entertain no hopes for his own daughter. Moreover
he was aware that a little excursion of this kind does more to bring
people together than a week's visit in the house.
John was silent; and the farmer in his urgency nudged him, and said in a
half-whisper:
"Do you speak to her; maybe she will be more apt to do as you say, and
will go with us."
"I think," said John aloud, "that your sister is quite right in
preferring not to be driving about the country in the middle of the
week. I'll harness my white horse with yours, and then we can see how
they pull together. And we shall be back by supper-time, if not before."
Barefoot, who heard all this, bit her lips to keep from laughing.
"You see," she thought to herself, "you have not even got him by the
halter yet, much less by the bridle. He won't let himself be driven
about the country like a betrothed man, and then not be able to get
back.
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