ou never wed a
lazy man."

"Whar's Huldy gone?" inquired Judith, sauntering to the door and looking
out on the glad beauty of the April morning with fond brooding eyes. The
grotesque bow-legged pot-hooks dangled idly in her fingers.

"Over to Nancy Cyard's to git her littlest spinnin' wheel--so she _said_.
I took notice that she had a need for that wheel as soon as ever she
hearn tell that Creed Bonbright was up from Hepzibah stayin' at the
Cyards's."

Had not Iley been so engrossed with her own grievances, the sudden heat
of the look Judith turned upon her must have enlightened her.

"Huldy knowed him right well when she was waitin' on table at Miz.
Huffaker's boarding-house down at Hepzibah," the woman went on. "I ain't
got no use for these here fellers that's around tendin' to the whole
world's business--they' own chil'en is mighty apt to go hongry. But thar,
what does a gal think of that by the side o' curly hair and soft-spoken
ways?"

For Judith Barrier at once all the light was gone out of the spring
morning. The bird in the Rose of Sharon bush that she had taken for a
thrush--why, the thing cawed like a crow. She could have struck her
visitor. And then, with an uncertain impulse of gratitude, she was glad
to be told anything about Creed, to be informed that others knew his hair
was yellow and curly.

"Gone?" sounded old Jephthah's deep tones from within, as Mrs. Jim Cal
made her reluctant way back to a sick husband and a house full of work
and babies. "Lord, to think of a woman havin' the keen tongue that Iley's
got, and her husband keepin' fat on it!"

"Uncle Jep," inquired Judith abruptly, "did you know Creed Bonbright was
at Nancy Card's--stayin' there, I mean?"

"No," returned the old man, seeing in this a chance to call at the cabin,
where, beneath the reception that might have been offered an interloper,
even a duller wit than his might have divined a secret cordial welcome.
"I reckon I better find time to step over that way an' ax is there
anything I can do to he'p 'em out."

"I wish 't you would," assented Judith so heartily that he turned and
regarded her with surprise. "An' ef you see Huldy over yon tell her she's
needed at home. Jim Cal's sick, and Iley can't no-way git along without
her."

"I reckon James Calhoun Turrentine ain't got nothin' worse 'n the old
complaint that sends a feller fishin' when the days gits warm," opined
Jim Cal's father. "I named that boy after the finest man tha