Among carefully
chosen paintings a screaming chromo issued by the Middle Fork general
store proclaimed the superior quality of its staple and fancy groceries,
hardware, queensware and feed.

The old lady herself, though silk-gowned, wore her white hair drawn
severely back over parchment temples, as though repudiating the pomps
and vanities of this wicked world.

It was Ham's time-honored custom to tease his aunt, and while she
snorted and sniffed, she enjoyed it, for whatever she thought of a
Babylonian life, she secretly worshiped this brilliant young nephew who
so well fitted its stress and turmoil.

"Were you down-stairs at dinner tonight, flirting with the grand dukes
and big-wigs?" he demanded as he kissed her pale cheek.

"As if you didn't know," she austerely rebuked, "that, when company
comes, I always have supper right here in my own room."

It would have been a surrender of principle for Hannah Burton to call
"company" guests, or the evening meal "dinner."

"There were some very smart people down-stairs, I'm told," the man
heckled with twinkling eyes. "Divorcees in numbers and affinities
galore."

The old lady shuddered.

"Ham, I wish you wouldn't run on in that ungodly fashion. I'm sure it's
no laughing matter. I pray for you day and night, but when a body's
blinded by wealth and imagining vain things they're in mortal danger."

Her nephew's face softened. "As long as you're praying for me, Aunt
Hannah," he assured her, "I still have a fighting chance."

"Ham," she said suddenly with a shadow of deep anxiety in her eyes,
"ain't your father playing cards more than's good for him? I've worried
considerable about that here of late. He used to read his Scriptures
regular. Now he don't do it. Instead he gambles."

"Father only plays in amiable little games, for the sake of charity,
Aunt Hannah." Hamilton smiled indulgently as he enlightened her. "You
could hardly call it gambling. In gambling there is an element of
chance. Father merely contributes."

The old lady shook her head. "This town ain't much different from Tyre
and Sidon and Babylon, so far as I can see," she mournfully asserted.

"They were said to be live towns in their day," he admitted.

Then for the rest of his spare hour he chatted with her and teased her
solemnity into laughter, and before he left, because she asked it and
complained that her eyes were poor, he read to her a chapter from the
New Testament and kissed her good-night