bonnet, muttering to herself.
She could not be more than fifty, Mary thought, but her habit of muttering
and exhibiting her depopulated gums while she was in the act of
revivifying the snuff-brush gave her a cronish aspect.

A babel of voices came from the open-faced room on the opposite side of
the house corresponding to the one in which Mary and Mrs. Rodney were
sitting. Apparently supper was being prepared by some half-dozen young
people, each of whom thought he or she was being imposed upon by the
others. "Hand me that knife." "Git it yourself." "I'll tell maw how you
air wolfing down the potatoes as fast as I can fry 'em." "Go on,
tattle-tale." This was the repartee, mingled with the hiss of frying meat,
the grinding of coffee, the thumping sound made by bread being hastily
mixed in a wooden bowl standing on a wooden table. The babel grew in
volume. Dogs added to it by yelping emotionally when the smell of the
newly fried meat tempted them too near the platter and some one with a
disengaged foot at his disposal would kick them out of doors.
Personalities were exchanged more freely by members of the family, and the
meat hissed harder as it was newly turned. "Laws-a-massy!" muttered Mrs.
Rodney; and then, shoving back the sun-bonnet, she lifted her voice in a
shrill, feminine shriek:

"Eudory! Eu-dory! You-do-ry!"

A Hebe-like creature, blond and pink-cheeked, in a blue-checked apron
besmeared with grease and flour, came sulkily into her mother's presence.
Seeing Mary Carmichael, she grasped the skirt of the greasy apron with the
sleight of hand of a prestidigitateur and pleated it into a single
handful. Her manner, too, was no slower of transformation. The family
sulks were instantly replaced by a company bridle, aided and abetted by a
company simper. "I didn't know the stage was in yet, maw. I been talking
to Iry."

"This here be Miz Yellett's gov'ment. Maybe she'd like to pearten up some
before she eats." She started the rocking-chair at a gallop, to signify to
her daughter that she washed her hands of further responsibility. Being
proficient in the sign language of Mrs. Rodney's second self, as indeed
was every member of the family, Eudora led Mary to a bench placed in one
of the rooms enjoying the distinction of a side wall, and indicated a
family toilet service, which displayed every indication of having lately
seen active service. A roll-towel, more frankly significant of the
multitude of the Rodneys than