rdian, and of course James will put you under my care."

"I--I really thought that perhaps Cousin James did not have room for me,
Cousin Martha," I answered meekly. "How many families has he with him
now?" I asked with a still further meekness that was the depths of
wiliness.

"There are three of us widows, whom he sustains and comforts for the
loss of our husbands, and also the three Norton girls, cousins on his
father's side of the house, you remember. It is impossible for them to
look after their plantation since their father's death robbed them of a
protector, at least, even though he had been paralyzed since Gettysburg.
James is a most wonderful man, my dear--a most wonderful man. Though as
he is my son I ought to think it in silence."

"Indeed he is," I answered from the heart. "But--but wouldn't it be a
little crowded for him to have another--another vine--that is, exactly
what would he do with me? I know Widegables is wide, but that is a
houseful, isn't it?"

"Well, all of us did feel that it made the house uncomfortably full when
Sallie came with the three children, but you know Henry Carruthers left
James his executor and guardian of the children, and Sallie of course
couldn't live alone, so Mrs. Hargrove and I moved into the south room
together, and gave Sallie and the children my room. It is a large room,
and it would be such a comfort to Sallie to have you stay with her and
help her at night with the children. She doesn't really feel able to get
up with them at all. Then Dilsie could sleep in the cabin, as she ought
to on account of the jimsonweed in her phthisic pipe. It would be such a
beautiful influence in your lonely life, Evelina, to have the children
to care for."

I wondered if Cousin Martha had ever heard that galatea bunch indulge in
such heartfelt oaths as had followed that train down the track last
night!

"It would be lovely," I answered--and the reply was not all insincerity,
as I thought of the darkness of that long night, and the Bunch's offer
of a place at her sturdy little back "next the wall."

"But I will be so busy with my own work, Cousin Martha, that I am afraid
I couldn't do justice to the situation and repay the children and Sallie
for crowding them."

"Why, you couldn't crowd us, Evelina, honey," came in Sallie's rich
voice, as she sailed into the room, trailing the Pup and the Kit at her
skirts and flying lavender ribbons at loose ends. "We've come to help
you move over