er for Rose Mary and them sweet old folks, even to
gettin' my house into a unseemly married condition before hand,"
answered Mrs. Plunkett as she brushed a tear away from her blue eyes.

"That's the way we all feel," said Mrs. Rucker. "Now if I was you I'd
give Mr. Crabtree that middle bureau drawer. Men are apt to poke
things away careless if they has the top, and the bottom one is best
to use for your own things. Mr. Satterwhite always kept his clothes so
it were a pleasure to look at 'em, but Cal Rucker prefers a pair of
socks separated across the house if he can get them there. I found
one of his undershirts full of mud and stuck away in the kitchen safe
with the cup towels last week. There comes Mis' Poteet to help at
last! I never heard anything yell like Tucker has been doing all
morning. Is he quiet at last, Mis' Poteet?"

"Yes, I reckon he's gave out all the holler that's in him, but I'm
afraid to put him down," and Mrs. Poteet continued the joggling,
swaying motion to a blue bundle on her breast that she had been
administering as a continuous performance to young Tucker since
daylight. "I'm sorry I couldn't come help you all with the moving, but
you can count on my mop and broom over to the store all afternoon,
soon as I can turn him over to the children."

"We ain't needed you before, but now we have got Mr. Crabtree all
settled down here with Mrs. Plunkett we can get to work on his house
right after dinner. Have you been over to the Briars to see 'em in the
last hour?"

"Yes, I come by there, but they didn't seem to need me. Miss Viney
has got Miss Amandy and Tobe and the General at work, and Rose Mary
has gone down to the dairy to pack up the last batch of butter for Mr.
Crabtree to take to the city in the morning. Mr. Tucker's still going
over things in the barn, and my feelings riz so I had to come away for
fear of me and little Tucker both busting out crying."

And over at the Briars the scenes of exodus being enacted were well
calculated to touch a heart sterner than that of the gentle,
sympathetic and maternal Mrs. Poteet. Chilled by the out-of-season
wind Miss Lavinia had awakened with as bad a spell of rheumatism as
she had had for a year and it was with the greatest difficulty that
Rose Mary had succeeded in rubbing down the pain to a state where she
could be propped up in bed to direct little Miss Amanda and the
children in the last sad rites of getting things into shape to be
carried across