of sixty and
over, he looked puzzled.

"Miss Ann, her as _is_ now, was considerable older than Theodore Starr,
but she shined up to him and let him lead her about considerable--some
said him and her was--engaged to marry. Then there was the Walden girl
as _isn't_ now, her they called Queenie. She was a right pert little
thing what growed into a woman like a Jonas gourd, sudden and startling!
That was the summer that young Lansing Hertford came back to the old home
place of his forebears to look about--there was a general mess of things
up to Stoneledge those days, and all I know is that Starr he went up into
the hills to nurse a fever plague and there he died. Lansing Hertford
went off like a shot--but them Hertfords allus lit out like they was
chased--never could stand loneliness and lack of luxury. Queenie, she
done died the winter following that summer; died of lung trouble off to
some hospital way off somewhere, and Miss Ann she settled down--an old
woman from that time on! You can't get her to speak Starr's name. You
never could. Us-all tried. When things got too hard for Miss Ann she
done adopt little Miss Cyn--that chile has considerable brightened up
Miss Ann, but Lord! she never was the same after that summer, and I hold,
and allus shall, that Starr wasn't what we-all thought him at first. A
man don't go dying off in the hills for folks what hadn't any call upon
him, lest he has a reason for doing so."

Moore loved to talk. Some one always has to be the orator of a club, and
Tansey, self-elected, filled this position in the circle around the old
stove. Greeley was bored. Past history did not concern him and Moore's
opinions he ignored. He had not been listening closely, for his thoughts
would, in spite of him, follow the ramshackle buggy down The Way.

"She had a right pleasant look and manner," he pondered. "I reckon
she'll get some fun out of her job, no matter what that job is."

CHAPTER III

It was something of a jog to The Hollow people to find Miss Lowe
actually settled at Trouble Neck. They had looked upon the possibility
of her coming as an evil which threatened but might be averted. She
had come, however; had actually bought the cabin from Smith Crothers,
and fitted it up in a manner never known to cabin folks before.

Through all the pleasant summer days the broad door of the little house
stood invitingly open and flowers had grown up as if by magic in the
tiny front yard.