d have made Timmie a widow."

"A widow?" Brent asked, passing her with a cheery nod. "Uncle Zack told
me they were twins!"

"So we is twins," the old woman asserted, "but dat don' keep me from
bein' a widder, do it?"

"The fact of the matter is, Brent," Colonel May said with a twinkle
about his eyes, "it requires stupendous acumen to understand this
situation. Timmie and Zack were born on the same day, at precisely the
same hour, and in adjoining cabins. So that makes them twins. I hope you
follow me?"

"Like a hound, sir," Brent assured him.

"Then Timmie has never told you how it all came about, and how they got
their names!" The Colonel looked down at her. Occasionally, when he was
in a particularly gay mood, he made one or both of these old people
amuse his company. It was their boast, their greatest pride, that this
story of how they became twins, how they were named, and finally
married, had been recited before governors and other dignitaries, each
of whom they delighted to enumerate. She looked up saying with a shade
of rebuke in her voice:

"Marse John's done tol' you 'bout de twins part an' de marr'in'--an' as
for de namin', why, dat won't take no time. You see, when I wuz 'bout to
be borned mah mammy wuz in a turrible state. Most cullud folks is, at
dat time, an' most of 'em gits de 'ligion, 'caze it kinder ease 'em up.
Well, sah, whilst mah mammy wuz havin' de 'ligion an' me, Zack's mammy
wuz havin' de 'ligion an' him. Our cabins set jest lak yoh two han's
togerr--dat a-way--an' dar warn't no secrets 'tween dem famblys, dat's a
fac'! Well, when 'twuz all over, mah mammy's so thankful she say she
gwine name me outen de Scriptires. Zack's mammy heah dat, an' she lay
low an' study 'bout a name, too. De upshot wuz dat mah mammy settle on
de fu'st line of de hymn: 'Timorous-is-we-poh-mortal-worms.' Dat stun
'em some, you bet; but towa'ds evenin' Zack's mammy raise up an' shout
she's done foun' de name, an' when dey-alls run to her doh she say:
''Zackly-how-thankful-I-is-dat-dis-heah-trial-an'-tribulachun-am-over-
de-Lawd-in-His-goodness-only-knows! An' dat's mah son's name!' Well,
sah, de niggers fer miles 'round wuz jest bustin' dey jaws tryin' to
say dem gran' names, but a coolness set in on mah mammy. She got mighty
uppish, an' say it warn't fayh fer Zack's mammy to wait an' go her one
better, dat a-way. So dey sent fer ole Aunt Moony Jorden. Ever'body
stepped 'round fer Aunt Moony, 'caze she's bohn wid