193

XIX Miss Ann Moves On 202

XX A Heart-Warming Welcome 212

XXI The Clan in Conclave 220

XXII A Great Transformation 228

XXIII The Lost Is Found 237

XXIV Blessings Begin to Flow 251

XXV Uncle Billy Smiles 262

The Comings of Cousin Ann

CHAPTER I

The Veterans of Ryeville

Ryeville had rather prided itself on having the same population--about
three thousand--for the last fifty years. That is the oldest
inhabitants had, but the newer generation was for expansion in spite
of tradition, and Ryeville awoke one morning, after the census taker
had been busying himself, to find itself five thousand strong and
still growing.

There was no especial reason for the growth of the little town, save
that it lay in the heart of rolling blue-grass country and people have
to live somewhere. And Ryeville, with its crooked streets and
substantial homes, was as good a place as any. There were churches of
all denominations, schools and shops, a skating rink, two motion
picture houses and as many drug stores as there had been barrooms
before prohibition made necessary a change of front. There were two
hotels--one where you "could" and one where you "couldn't." The former
was frequented by the old men of the town and county. It stood next to
the courthouse. Indeed its long, shady porch overlooked the courthouse
green. There the old men would sit with chairs tilted against the wall
and feet on railing and sadly watch the prohibition officers hauling
bootleggers to court.

There were a great many old men in Ryeville and the country
around--more old men than old women, in spite of the fact that that
part of Kentucky had furnished its quota of recruits for both Union
and Rebel armies.

In Kentucky, during the war between the states, brother had been
pitted against brother--even father against son. The fact that the
state did not secede from the Union had been a reason for the most
intense bitterness and ill feeling among families and former friends.
The bitterness was gone now and ill feeling forgotten. The veterans of
the blue and the gray sat on the Rye House porch together, swapping
tales and borrowing tobacco as amic