ocking-chair from the farther end of the porch; then
disappeared into the house, to return a moment later with a heavy shawl.
"Hit'll be a-turnin' cold directly, now the sun's plumb down," she said,
"an' you-all mustn't get to chillin', nohow."

Auntie Sue thanked her with gentle courtesy, and, reaching up, caught
the girl's hand as Judy was awkwardly arranging the wrap about the thin
old shoulders. "Won't you bring a chair for yourself, and sit with
me awhile, dear?" As she spoke, Auntie Sue patted the hard, bony hand
caressingly.

But Judy pulled her hand away roughly, saying: "You-all ain't got no
call ter do sich as that ter me. I'll set awhile with you but I ain't
a-needin' no chair." And with that, she seated herself on the floor, her
back against the wall of the house.

The last of the evening was gone from the sky, now. The soft darkness of
a clear, star-light night lay over the land. A gentle breeze stole over
the mountains, rustled softly through the forest, and, drifting across
the river, touched Auntie Sue's silvery hair.

Judy was first to break the silence: "I took notice neighbor Tom brung
you-all a right smart bunch of letter mail this evenin'," she said,
curiously.

There was a troubled note in Auntie Sue's gentle voice as she returned,
"The letter from the bank did not come, Judy."

"Hit didn't?"

"No; and, Judy, it is nearly four weeks, now, since I sent them that
money. I can't understand it."

"I was plumb scared at the time, you oughten ter sent hit just in
er letter that a-way. Hit sure looked like a heap of money ter be
a-trustin' them there ornery post-office fellers with, even if hit was
funny, new-fangled money like that there was. Why, ma'm, you take old
Tod Stimson, down at the Ferry, now, an' that old devil'd steal anythin'
what warn't too much trouble for him ter lift."

"Argentine notes the money was, Judy. I felt sure that it would be all
right because, you know, Brother John sent it just in a letter all the
way from Buenos Aires. And, you remember, I folded it up in extra heavy
paper, and put it in two envelopes, one over the other, and mailed it at
Thompsonville with my own hands."

"Hit sure looks like hit ought ter be safe er nough, so long as hit
warn't mailed at the Ferry where old Stimson could git his hands on
hit," agreed Judy.

Then, after a silence of several minutes, she added, in a more
reassuring voice: "I reckon as how hit'll be all right, ma'm. I wouldn't
w