sum to tell about it,
because they said Mr. 'Possum's stories always sounded so unbelievable,
and yet always turned out to be almost founded on fact.

"Well," said Mr. 'Possum, "you remember I told you about Uncle Silas
Lovejoy going to the city, once, and coming home all stylish, with a
young man to wait on him, and how Aunt Melissy, when she saw them,
turned the young man into just a plain hired help and set them both to
work in the garden;[2] and you may remember how I once told you about
all our folks, including the hired man, being moved by a balloon across
the Wide Blue Water and set down right at the very door of a fine hollow
tree, which we moved into and enjoyed for a long time--my little cousins
and myself growing up there, and some of them still living there to this
day."[3]

Mr. 'Possum stopped to fill his pipe again, and the others all said they
remembered, and Mr. 'Coon said he always liked the nice slow and
reminding way Mr. 'Possum began his stories, as it brought everything up
fresh, and one didn't have to be trying to think of what had happened
before, but could just sit back and listen. Mr. 'Possum nodded, and lit
his pipe, and leaned back and drew a few puffs, as if he enjoyed them
so much that he didn't care to go on with his story. But pretty soon he
said:

"We lived there till I grew up, and all my little cousins, too, and the
hired man stayed with us. He was a very good young man; though, being
brought up in town, of course it took him a little while to get used to
country ways. But Aunt Melissy was a stirring person and she didn't let
it take as long as it might have in another family. Aunt Melissy was
quite primpy herself, and said that she guessed she could carry what
style there was in our family (being a Glenwood, and having married
beneath her), and that Uncle Silas and the rest of us would do pretty
well if we managed to keep up with the work she laid out for us; and
that was so.

[Illustration: SHE WOULD MAKE WINTERS HELP MY YOUNG LADY COUSIN DO THE
DISHES]

"She kept Uncle Silas and Winters--that was the name of the hired
man--busier than anybody, as she never quite got over the trip to town
and the way they came home. She used to set Uncle Silas to peeling
potatoes, after supper, for next morning, and would make Winters help my
young lady cousin do the dishes, which you would not think he would
like; but he did. Aunt Melissy didn't know that he would like it so
much, or she would