way as the girl's.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" spoke a voice of gentleness.

And the world had turned over and come up right side on top. "Mawnin',
Miss. Yas'm, I was fixin' to go in dat big do' yander, but I dunno as
I'm 'lowed. Is I 'lowed, young miss, to go in dar an' gib my two hun'erd
to Unc' Sam?"

"What?" The tone was kindness itself, but bewildered.

Aunt Basha elucidated. "I got two hun'erd, young miss, and I cert'nly
want to gib it to Unc' Sam to buy clo'se for dem boys what's fightin'
for us in Franch."

"I wonder," spoke the girl, gazing thoughtfully, "if you want to get a
Liberty Bond?"

"Yas'm--yas, miss. Dat's sho' it, a whatjer-ma-call-'em. I know'd 'twas
some cu'is name lak dat." The vision nodded her head.

"I'm going in to do that very thing myself," she said. "Come with me.
I'll help you get yours."

Aunt Basha followed joyfully in the wake, and behold, everything was
easy. Ready attention met them and shortly they sat in a private office
carpeted in velvet and upholstered in grandeur. A personage gave grave
attention to what the vision was saying.

"I met--I don't know your name," she interrupted herself, turning to the
old negro woman.

Aunt Basha rose and curtsied. "Dey christened me Bathsheba Jeptha,
young miss," she stated. "But I'se rightly known as Aunt Basha. Jes'
Aunt Basha, young miss. And marster."

A surname was disinterred by the efforts of the personage which appeared
to startle the vision.

"Why, it's our name, Mr. Davidson," she exclaimed. "She said Cabell."

Aunt Basha turned inquiring, vague eyes. "Is it, honey? Is yo' a
Cabell?"

And then the personage, who was, after all, cashier of the Ninth
National Bank and very busy, cut in. "Ah, yes! A well known Southern
name. Doubtless a large connection. And now Mrs.--ah--Cabell--"

"I'd be 'bleeged ef yo' jis' name me Aunt Basha, marster."

And marster, rather _intrigue_ because he, being a New Englander, had
never in his life addressed as "aunt" a person who was not sister to his
mother or his father, nevertheless became human and smiled. "Well, then,
Aunt Basha."

At a point a bit later he was again jolted when he asked the amount
which his newly adopted "aunt" wanted to invest. For an answer she
hauled high the folds of her frock, unconscious of his gasp or of the
vision's repressed laughter, and went on to attack the clean purple
alpaca petticoat which was next in rank, Mr. Davidson thought it wise at