A Woman Named Smith

d Great-Aunt Sophronisba Scarlett, who, it would appear, had given me a white elephant which I could neither hire out

whole aspect of the place was grim and forbidding. At the back, where there wasn't such an overgrowth, the lane had

s a mortuary tablet set

icia d

's got to be done. And when it's done-we'll have a home. Vision it as it's going to be, Sophy-rosewood and mahogany and walnut, old brass and china and prints and portraits, the sort of thi

r on the front door r

nted out of existence, and he's h

e. Then one had time to observe that although he hadn't the sleek and careful grooming of successful New Yorkers, he wore his clothes as, say, C?ur de Lion must have worn mail. He hadn't the brisk business manner, either; but there radiated from him an assured authori

nt voice. "Miss Smith, I'm your next-door neighbor, hous

onplaces, that we were pleased to make his acquaintan

n table for a few minutes, and when she came back from the pantry, not ten feet away, the tray was gone. Vanished. Disappeared. Nowhere to be found. She flopped on the floor and howled. She weighs two hundred and forty pounds and I hadn't a derrick handy. I had to roll her up on bed-sl

l my knees knocking together. "O-o-o-h! How

the doctor, grimly. "I've given her to understand that if she hasn't got her soul saved before to-night, I'll physic it out of her and hang

ia said demurely. "We

th the frank pleasure all masculinity evinces a

a lunatic, but a very charming fellow, Jelnik, though your amiable predecessor, Miss Smith, chose to consider him a sort

t consider it necessary to heir her-er-prejudices," h

ed him gently, "was my re

ive. Not on speaking-, only on

ld us; and I'm afraid I eyed him a

at old demon's footsteps than an outsider is. My dear lady, under ordinary circumstances and with human neighbors,

Doctor Geddes;

st as bad. Anyhow, she preferre

ause she did

vil of a woman can give points to Satan. If," cried the doctor, vehemently, "there is one great

l never live to be an old man. Old ladies are far, far nicer. Have you ever known an old lady who tho

in both cases! There is no sex in fo

n in the house is a blessing;

the Talmud says. I know what I kno

both when they're not." And she added, with a na?ve air of confide

ain, and sat down. His eyebro

who, as yet, have neither? Let's get down to business. What are you going to do about the lane behind Hynds House? We had the use of that lane this hundred

to consult J

n a flea. Gatchell would hang his grandmother on a point of law. Why shou

hall I be guided?

annoy you; I'm far enough away to keep you from smelling my pipe; and I shall quarrel with you only when I can't help it. In return, I have but one favor to beg of you: don't use a shot-gun on my

ave a

y the hussy immediately foisted upon us two wholly unnecessary kittens. Mandy wouldn't allow them to be decently drowned, for it's worse luck yet to tamper with a witch'

t was very thoughtful of that cat to have two black kittens ready f

my kindness: thank Mandy's idiocy, of which she has more than her jus

our chickens in your own yard, and w

get a dog," sug

I've always wa

his lip. "A poodle! In Hynds House! The

ld have what she chose. This

cats. Get a parrot-and an orphan with the itch-and a hyena-and a blunderbuss! Her name is Sophr

Alicia laughed. She cries with her eyes open and her mouth shut, and she laughs with her eyes shut a

Jelnik, none the less!" And muttering: "Sophronisba! Lo

anted place-a place where one has good meals, bad advice, and black cats showered on o

footsteps of one's predecessor,

hing, "he'll never live to be

the tact of

ders of a

minable

rather approve of a beard, on somebody h

s come over here, I s

'll tell him so wh

hat, and my nam

said Alicia. "Sophy, that man has come into our lives to stay. I feel it

afraid, after a night in Hynds House! The three colored women who had come with him, induced by cupidity and curiosity to en

, by bribery, cajolery, and subornation of scruples, to remain with us permanently. Only, she flatly refused

Mary Magdalen. In two days she had transformed a sooty cavern into a clean and orderly kitchen. For she was a singing and a scourful woman, and her Sign was the speretual and the scrubbing-brush. It is true that s

cally. "Ah 'd rathah make mah coffee in a ol' white stockin'

must be watched until we can buy a percolater. Suppo

reats, entreaties, prayers, orders, commands, moral suasion-could break her of doing just what she wanted to do just when and how she wanted to do it. You'd be entertaining your dearest enem

Miss

y, with a feigned smile; "

you know we

es

ss Sophy, '

ordered more,

ouah flouah,

I

got a Gawd

n the visitors, all of

s Ah gits chanst." Or, "Lawsy me, Miss Jinny, dat boy o' yo's is jes' natchelly b

seem to surprise our visitors. Th

had come to Hyndsville, except that somehow he had acquired a small farm near by and couldn't get away from it. He explained to us, gently but firmly, that if we wouldn't meddle after the manner of

ts of fierce beauty, and the glamour of golden moons, and the thrilling melody of that feathered Israfel, the mocking-bird. Through our open wind

beautiful sapphire glassware, and a pagoda work-box with ivory corners; and on a lower shelf, wrapped in half a moth-eaten shawl, two glowing luster jugs in proof condition. Mary Magdalen salvaged a fine china sillabub stand, with little white-and-gold covered cups on it, from a sooty box under a kitchen cupboard. A back drawer of the dusty office desk yielded up half a dozen exquisite prints.

with a shepherdess hat glued on her painted head; the other dressed in a poke-bonnet, a satin sack, and a much-flounced skirt. They had evidently belonged to "Lydia, our Darling Child," whose name, in unsteady letters, was painfully se

udden, horrible yells rose from the garden, and a shrieking negro went by the window like an arrow. We caught "Murder!-Ol' Witch!-Corpses!" as he disappeared. Uncle Adam, catching

mah kitchin, trackin' up mah clean flo', an Ah 'll suah

and down, flapping his arms, a

main! Iron-skulled offspring of the union

r heaven's sake? what i

fin' wha'h dat ol' witch 'oman bury

in good English. "This corpse is not alive! Never yet was he alive! Return, sons of

vering workman flung down his shovel and took to his

peremptory voice. "Schmetz!

ug from the earth the leetle boy of stone-you know him, hein? Those niggers, sacrement! they think they have unco

statue, Schmetz? Ask, my good fellow, if

urse!" said

u," said

Upon our knees, with Schmetz helping us, we were trying to tear away the rotten coverings, and the dirt and mold. And there, beautiful despite the stains disfiguring him, lay the boy Love

to hide away something so lovely? Poor dear little god, aren't you glad to get out of that grave

and go in its brown depths. The exquisitely aquiline features, the small black mustache, an indescribably proud and high-bred ease and grace of manner and bearing, were oddly exotic and even more oddly fascinating. Hi

d as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foo

d it: because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he polled it:), he wei

at he did not belong to my world at all. King's sons are for princesses, for those human birds of paradise that f

nd?" he asked, in

a wisp of a bright curl misbehaved itself on her cheek, a flirtatious curl that knew e

r garden! Isn't it wonderful and impossible and exciting and delightful? But it's tr

me. I should hate to be untruthful,

a slow and lazy smile, a sort of secret smile, curving his beautiful, mocking mouth. "Fancy finding Love, of all things, in Sophronisba's garden!" A