shoulder, "what the Lord hath given and taketh away we bless Him
for and none the less what He giveth back, blessed be His name. That's
a jumble, but He understands me. You don't feel in no ways peculiar, do
you?" and as she asked the question the Doctor's mother clasped the
slender throat in one of her strong hands.

"Not a bit anywhere," answered Miss Wingate, with the burr all gone
from her soft voice. "Is it true?"

"Dearie me, I can't hardly stand it to hear you speak, it are so
sweet!" exclaimed Mother Mayberry in positive rapture and again the
tears filled her eyes, while her face crinkled up into a dimpled smile.
"Don't say nothing where the mocking-birds will hear you, please,
'cause they'll begin to hatch out a dumb race from plumb
discouragement. Come out on the porch where it ain't so hot, but I'm
a-holding on to you to keep you from flying up into one of the trees.
I'm a-going to set about building a cage for you right--"

"Now, didn't I tell you about that slippery-ellum!" came in a
positively triumphant voile to greet them as they stepped out of the
front door. Mrs. Peavey was ascending the steps all out of breath, her
decorous hat awry, and her eyes snapping with excitement. "Course I
don't think this can be no positive cure and like as not you'll wake up
to-morrow with your voice all gone dry again, but it were the
slippery-ellum that done it!"

"I think it must have helped some," answered the singer lady in the
clear voice that still held its wonted note of meekness to her neighbor.

"Course it did! Tom Mayberry's experimenting couldn'ter done it no real
good. His mother have been giving that biled bark for sore throat for
thirty years and it was me that remembered it. But it were a pity you
done it at the grave; that were Mis' Bostick's funeral and not your'n.
Now look at everybody a-coming up the Road with no grieving left at
all."

"Oh, Hettie Ann," exclaimed Mother Mayberry in quick distress, "it are
a mean kind of sorrow that can't open its arms to hold joy tender.
Think what it do mean to the child and--Look at Bettie!"

And indeed it was a sight to behold the pretty mother of the seventeen
sailing up the front walk like a great full-rigged ship. Miss Wingate
flew down the steps to meet her and in a few seconds was enveloped and
involved with little Hoover in an embrace that threatened to be
disastrous to all concerned. Judy Pike was close behind and, making a
grab on her own part, stood