ome
back. She wa'n't ready ter step off but she wa' 'lowin' ter have her
fling. Then the ol' home kotched afire an' then me'n Miss Ann didn't
have no sho' 'nough home an' we got ter visitin' roun' an' Marse Bob,
yo' gran'pap, kep a pleadin' an' Miss Ann she kep' a visitin', fust
one place then anudder, an' Marse Bob he got kinder tired a followin'
aroun' takin' our dus' an' befo' you knowd it he done tramsfered his
infections ter yo' gran'mammy, an' a nice lady she wa', but can't none
er them hol' a can'le ter my Miss Ann, then or now--'cept'n maybe that
purty red-headed gal what goes a whizzin' aroun' the county an' don't
drap her eyes fer nobody. 'Thout goin' back a mite on my Miss Ann, I
will say that that young white gal sho' do run Miss Ann a clost
second."

"You mean Miss Judith Buck, Uncle Billy?" and Jeff's face flushed. He
had been thinking a great deal about Judith Buck and he was trying to
school himself to stop thinking about her. Yet it pleased him that the
old darkey should thus mention her.

"Yes sah, Miss Judith Buck."

"Goodness, Uncle Billy, what is that strange rumbling and buzzing I
hear?" interrupted Jeff. "Your carriage sounds as though you had
installed a motor in the rear."

"Lawsamussy, Mr. Jeff, that ain't nothin' but a bumbly bee nes', what
we done pick up somewhere on our roun's. Them bees sho' do give me
trouble an' it looks like I can't lose 'em. 'Course I could smoke 'em
out but somehow I hates ter make the po' things homeless an' I reckon
they's got a notion that the hollow place in the back er this here
ca'ige b'longs ter them an' the knot hole they done bored is the
front do'. When me'n Miss Ann has ter drive on I jes' sticks a cawn
cob in the hole an' the bees trabels with us. Sometimes their buzzin'
air kinder comp'ny ter me. I ain't complainin' but times I'm lonesome
an' I wisht I mought er had a little cabin somewheres an' mebbe some
folks er my own."

"Yes, Uncle Billy, I know you must get tired of not having a real home
of your own. Didn't you ever marry and haven't you any kin?"

"No sah, I ain't never married an' as fer as I knows I ain't got any
kin this side er the grabe. You see, sah, it wa' this a way. I been
kinder lookin' arfter Miss Ann sence she wa' a gal an' I always said
ter myself, 'Now when my mistis marries I'll go a courtin' but not
befo'.' I had kinder took up with Mandy, a moughty likely gal back
there jes' after the wa' and me'n her had been a talkin' mo