The Maine man was overshy

From A treasury of American anecdotes; sly, salty, shaggy stories of heroes and hellions, beguilers and buffoons, spellbinders and scapegoats, gagsters and gossips, from the grassroots and sidewalks of America by Benjamin Albert Botkin.

The [Maine] man was overshy; the maiden was beautiful and seemed to him too wonderful to be asked for. He went on loving her in silence for ten years. He built a fine house, with garden and rockery, barn and outbuildings, though he hadn’t yet dared to propose.

When everything was finished he invited the maiden and her family to come over and see his estate. They all went through the house together and visited the garden and rockery. Finally he jockeyed so as to get Anna separated from the family, and they went together to see the outbuildings. They stood silently looking into the pigpen. He looked up sweetly and said, “Anna, shall we keep a pig?” And Anna said, “Yes.”