A fellow ought to save a few of the long evenings he spends with his girl till after they're married.

In Hubbard’s wry, small-town voice, the line pokes fun at courtship habits and the idealized intensity of dating. “Long evenings” spent with a sweetheart are presented as a finite resource that young men squander before marriage, when companionship may be harder to sustain amid work, routine, and domestic pressures. The joke carries a mild moral: don’t exhaust all your romance and conversation during engagement; save some attentiveness and leisure for the married life that is supposed to follow. It also hints at a broader social observation—premarital courtship can be performative, while marriage tests whether partners can still choose each other in ordinary time.