ckles her most."

"Oh!" said Melinda.

"Yes, you know the picture is as slim as a girl in her first pair o'
cossets a-standin' on a chair a-reachin' bottles off a top shelf, and
your Aunt Lucy's that hefty she hain't stood on a chair for ten years
for fear 'twould break down, and she's had to trust the top shelf to
the hired girl. I guess when she goes to Heaven she'll want to stop on
the way up and fix that top shelf to suit her. So she just sits and
looks at that picture and smiles and smiles. She likes my whiskers, too.
Yes, she's always wanted me to wear whiskers ever since we was married,
but we never was a whiskery fambly and they wouldn't seem to grow
thicker than your Uncle Josh's corn when he planted it one grain to the
hill. But there I am in the picture in the paper with real biblical
whiskers reachin' to the bottom o' my vest."

Uncle Joe cleared his throat and glanced sideways at his niece again. "I
want to tell you, Melindy, that I am real obleeged to you for makin' me
one of the main ones in the piece with a lot to say. Your Aunt Lucy says
'twas only right and proper, me bein' your nighest kin and you livin'
with us; but I told her there was so many others that was smarter and
more the story-paper kind, that I thought it showed real good feelin' on
your part; yes, I did.--_G'up, there, Ginger!_--Then I kind o' thought
I'd warn you, too, Melindy, that they all are just a-dyin' to hear you
say who 'The Preacher' is. He's the only one we couldn't quite place."

Melinda took the little bottle of smelling salts from her bag and held
it to her nose.

"Yes," Uncle Joe went on, "the others was easy identified because you
had named the names; but him you just called 'The Preacher' all the way
through. Some says it's the Reverend Graham kind of toned down and
trimmed up like things you see in the moonlight on a summer night. But I
told them the Reverend Graham is a nice enough chap, but that that
extra-fine, way-up preacher fellow in the story must be some stranger
you knew from off and didn't give his name, because you didn't rightly
know what it was. I thought, even if you was so soft on Reverend Graham
as to see him in that illusory, moony light, that about the stranger
from off was the right and proper thing for me, being your uncle, to say
any way. So if you want to keep it dark about 'The Preacher' you can
just talk about a stranger from off."

"I will, Uncle Joe--_dear_ Uncle Joe." Melinda exclaimed gr