At any rate , I would n't have married John when you were against him . Now I mean to . '' Old Abe stormed furiously at this , but Nan kept so provokingly cool that he was conscious of wasting breath . He went off in a rage , but Nan did not feel particularly anxious now that the announcement was over . He would cool down , she knew . John Osborne worried her more . She did n't see clearly how she was to marry him unless he asked her , and he had studiously avoided her since the foreclosure . But Nan did not mean to be baffled or to let her lover slip through her fingers for want of a little courage . She was not old Abe Stewart 's daughter for nothing . One day Ned Bennett dropped in and said that John Osborne would start for the west in three days . That evening Nan went up to her room and dressed herself in the prettiest dress she owned , combed her hair around her sparkling face in bewitching curls , pinned a cluster of apple blossoms at her belt , and , thus equipped , marched down in the golden sunset light to the Mill Creek Bridge . John Osborne , on his return from Thornhope half an hour later , found her there , leaning over the rail among the willows . Nan started in well-assumed surprise and then asked him why he had not been to see her . John blushed -- stammered -- did n't know -- had been busy . Nan cut short his halting excuses by demanding to know if he were really going away , and what he intended to do . `` I 'll go out on the prairies and take up a claim , '' said Osborne sturdily . `` Begin life over again free of debt . It 'll be hard work , but I 'm not afraid of that . I will succeed if it takes me years . '' They walked on in silence .
XXXXX came to the conclusion that Osborne meant to hold his peace .
Abe Bennett John Nan Osborne Stewart days foreclosure prairies years