and Mrs.
Knight died and his daughter-in-law and the little flame-haired Judith
were left to fend for themselves.

After the death of Mrs. Knight of course leaving was impossible. Old
Dick even spoke of himself as the sole support of his daughter-in-law
and her little Judith. He began to look upon hunting and fishing as a
duty and seemed to feel that they would have been destitute without
his occasional donation of a small string of perch or a rabbit. Mrs.
Knight tolerated him because she was used to him. Judith had a real
affection for the old man and, when he died, mourned for him
sincerely. To be sure he had been a very untidy old person who had
never done a day's work in all his life but at least he had a nimble
wit which had appealed to the child.

After his death Judith trapped rabbits and caught fish. She did many
things besides, however, as by that time family funds were so low and
the farm so unproductive it was necessary for some member of the
family to begin to make money. She was fourteen at the time her
grandfather died--a slim long-legged girl giving promise of the beauty
that the old soldiers and the drummer on the Rye House porch
acknowledged later on. Even then the wire-spring energy was hers that
still puzzled her mother--energy and an ever-present determination to
get ahead. Sometimes she caught enough fish to sell a few. Sometimes
she carried rabbits into the town for sale. In blackberry season she
was an indefatigable picker. She went in for chickens and had steady
customers in Louisville for her guaranteed eggs. School was looked
upon as part of the business of getting ahead. Nothing in the way of
weather daunted her. She went through the high school with flying
colors and got a medal for not having missed a single day in four
years.

At nineteen she was teaching school for eight months of the year and
the other four peddling toilet articles and a few side lines and now
planning to feed the motormen on the interurban trolleys.

"Well, well! I guess she got it from the Norse sailor," sighed Mrs.
Buck picking up another potato.

CHAPTER V

Uncle Billy's Diplomacy

The hall bedroom at Buck Hill was not such a small room, except in
comparison with the other rooms, which were enormous. There was plenty
of space in it for Miss Ann and a reasonable amount of luggage, but
not for Miss Ann and three trunks and the numerous bags and bundles
and boxes, which Billy stowed away, endeavoring t