t the flower beds, I suppose they ought to be made ready for
the winter."

"Miss Null," said the old man, slowly unbending his back, and getting
himself upright, "dar's allus sumfin' else to do. Eber sence I was fus'
bawn dar was sumfin else to do, an' I spec's it'll keep on dat ar way
till de day I dies."

"Of course there will be nothing else to do then but to die," observed
Mrs Null; "but I hope that day is far off, Uncle Isham."

"Dunno 'bout dat, Miss Null," said he. "But den some people do lib
dreffle long. Look at ole Aun' Patsy. Ise got to live a long time afore
I's as ole as Aun' Patsy is now."

"You don't mean to say," exclaimed Mrs Null, "that Aunt Patsy is alive
yet!"

"Ob course she is. Miss Null," said Uncle Isham. "If she'd died sence
you've been here we'd a tole you, sartin. She was gwine to die las'
week, but two or free days don' make much dif'rence to Aun' Patsy, she
done lib so long anyhow."

"Aunt Patsy alive!" exclaimed Mrs Null again. "I'm going straight off to
see her."

When she had reached the house, and had informed Letty where she was
going, the rotund maid expressed high approbation of the visit, and
offered to send Plez to show Miss Null the way.

"I don't need any one to go with me," said that lady, and away she
started.

"She don' neber want nobody to show her nowhar," said Plez, returning
with looks of much disapprobation to his business of peeling potatoes
for dinner.

When Mrs Null reached the cabin of Aunt Patsy, after about fifteen
minutes' walk, she entered without ceremony, and found the old woman
sitting on a very low chair by the window, with the much-talked-of,
many-colored quilt in her lap. Her white woolly head was partially
covered with a red and yellow handkerchief, and an immense pair of
iron-bound spectacles obstructed the view of her small black face, lined
and seamed in such a way that it appeared to have shrunk to half its
former size. In her long, bony fingers, rusty black on the outside, and
a very pale tan on the inside, she held a coarse needle and thread and a
corner of the quilt. Near by, in front of a brick-paved fireplace, was
one of her great-granddaughters, a girl about eighteen years old, who
was down upon her hands and knees, engaged with lungs, more powerful
than ordinary bellows, in blowing into flame a coal upon the hearth.

"How d'ye Aunt Patsy?" said Mrs Null. "I didn't expect to see you
looking so well."

"Dat's Miss Null," said the gi