y mind, somethin' terrible.
Once I was goin' to tell Mary Louise, but--she couldn't understand it
like you kin. She's--diff'rent. And if Gran'dad ever hears that I
blabbed I'm as good as dead, an' I know it!"

"He won't hear it from me," promised Josie.

"Well, Gran'dad was allus sly. I 'member Marm tellin' him to his face
he were cold as ice an' sly as sin. Mann had a way o' sayin' what she
thought o' him, an' he'd jes' look at her steady an' say nuth'n back.
She was allus tryin' to git money out o' him, Marm was, an' when he
said he didn't hev no money she tol' him she knew he did. She ransacked
the whole house--an' even tore up the floor-boards--tryin' to find
where he'd hid it. Her idee was that if he'd sold his land for a lot o'
money, an' hadn't spent a cent, he must hev it yit. But I guess Marm
didn't find no money, an' so she lit out. The day she lit out she said
to him that he was too slick for her, but she could take care o'
herself. All she wanted was for him to take care o' me. Gran'dad said
he would; an' so he did. He didn't take any too much care o' me, an'
I'd ruther he wouldn't. If I had more to eat, I wouldn't kick, but
since Mary Louise come here an' invited me to tea so often I hain't
be'n hungry a bit."

"Mary Louise likes company," said Josie. "Go on, dear."

"Well, after Ann Kenton got married, her new husban' come here, which
was Ned Joselyn. I never took a fancy to Ann. She wasn't 'specially
uppish, but she wasn't noth'n else, either. Ned made me laugh when I
first seen him. He had one spectacle in one eye, with a string to ketch
it if it fell off. He had striped clothes an' shiny shoes an' he walked
as keerful as if he was afraid the groun' would git the bottoms o' them
nice shoes dirty. He used to set in that summer-house an' smoke
cigarettes an' read books. One day he noticed Ol' Swallertail, an'
looked so hard at him that his one-eyed spectacle fell off a dozen
times.

"That night he sent a letter to Gran'dad an' Gran'dad read it an' tore
it up an' told the man that brung it there was no answer. That's all I
knew till one night they come walkin' home together, chummy as a team
o' mules. When they come to the bridge they shook hands an' Ol'
Swallertail come to the house with a grin on his face--the first an'
last grin I ever seen him have."

"Doesn't he ever laugh?" asked Josie.

"If he does, he laughs when no one is lookin'. But after that day I
seen Ned Joselyn with Gran'dad a good