dn't
get over Bert Mason. She wasn't much more than a child when the war
broke out, but the war aged the girls as it did the boys."

"I hear tell Miss Ann is on the move right smart lately," ventured
Pete Barnes.

"So they tell me," continued Major Fitch. "I tell you, havin' comp'ny
now isn't what it used to be, what with wages up sky-high and all the
niggers gone to Indianapolis and Chicago so there aren't any to pay
even if you had the money, and food costin' three times what it's
wuth. I reckon it is no joke to have Miss Ann a fallin' in on her kin
nowadays with two horses that must have oats and that old Billy to
fill up besides."

"Yes, and Little Josh tells me Miss Ann is always company wherever she
stays," said the Judge. "He wasn't exactly complaining but just kind
of explaining. You see his wife, that last one, just up and said she
wouldn't and she wouldn't. I reckon Miss Ann kind of wore out her
welcome last time she was there because she came just when Mrs. Little
Josh was planning a trip to White Sulphur and Miss Ann wouldn't take
the hint and the journey had to be put off and then the railroad
strike came along and Little Josh was afraid to let his wife start
for fear she couldn't get back. Mrs. Little Josh is as sore as can be
about it and threatens if Miss Ann comes any more that she will invite
all of her own kin at the same time and see which side can freeze out
the other. The old lady hasn't been there this year and she hasn't
been to Big Josh's either. Big Josh's daughters have read the riot
act, so I hear, and they say if their old cousin comes to them without
being invited they are going to try some visiting on their own hook
and leave Big Josh to do the entertaining. They say he is great on big
talk about family ties and the obligations of kinship but that they
have all the trouble and when their Cousin Ann Peyton visits them he
simply takes himself off and leaves them to do the work. Big Josh
lives up such a muddy lane it's hard to keep servants."

Miss Ann's lumbering carriage had hardly reached the far corner when
the attention of the old men on the porch was arrested by a small,
low-swung motor car of the genus runabout. No doubt its motor and
wheels had been turned out of a factory but the rest of it was plainly
home made. It was painted a bright blue. The rear end might have
applied for a truck license, as it was evidently intended as a bearer
of burdens, but the front part had the air o