ton," blustered Big Josh. "Tell her her cousins all
want to see her," and then he swelled his chest with pride. He for one
wasn't going to back out.

"Miss Ann done gone," grinned Aunt Em'ly.

"Gone where?" they asked in chorus.

"Gawd knows! She an' ol' Billy an' the hosses done took theyselves off
this mawnin' jes' 'bout five minutes after my white folks lef."

"Didn't she say where she was going?" asked Mr. Bucknor.

"She never said 'peep turkey!' ter man or beast. She lef' a dime fer
me an' one fer Kizzie an' she went a sailin' out, an' although I done
my bes' ter git that ol' Billy ter talk he ain't done give me no
satisfaction, but jes' a little back talk, an' then he fotch hisself
off, walkin' low an' settin' high an' I ain't seed hide or har of them
since. Miss Ann done lef' a note fer you an' Miss Milly, though."

The note proved to be nothing more than Miss Ann's usual formal
farewell and did not mention her proposed destination.

"By the great jumping jingo, I hope she didn't try my lane with her
old carriage!" exclaimed Big Josh. "That lane, with the women in my
family at the end of it, would be the undoing of poor old Cousin Ann.
May I use your phone, Bob? I think I'll find out if she's there
before I go home."

Every man rang up his home and every man breathed a sigh of relief
when he found that Miss Ann had not arrived. Wild and varied were
their surmises concerning where she had gone.

"This is the most disgraceful thing that ever happened in the family,"
declared Timothy Graves. "Of course I know I am only law-kin, but
still I feel the disgrace."

"You needn't be so proud of yourself, Tim, because you were some kin
already before you married Sister Sue," chided Brother Tom. "I can't
see that you are not in on it too."

"That's what I said."

"Yes, but you said it because you really felt it in your favor that
you were law-kin," put in Little Josh.

"Nonsense!"

"Come, come," pleaded Mr. Bob Bucknor, "rowing with each other isn't
finding out where Cousin Ann has gone. Kizzie! Aunt Em'ly!" he
shouted, "get that cracked ice and mint now. Come on, you fellows, and
let's see if we can find any inspiration in the bottom of a frosted
goblet."

CHAPTER XXII

A Great Transformation

It was unbelievable that a lumbering coach, with two fat horses, an
old lady in a hoop skirt and a bow-legged coachman, could have
disappeared from the face of the earth. Nevertheless, this seemed the
c