The Comings of Cousin Ann

ergy o

ill. I saw her old carriage on the road

?" drawled Mrs. Buck. "I'd take my time about calli

hing, the girl smiled indulgently, and procee

ne did. I'm just a born peddler and I know I make more when I can deliver the goods the minute they are bought and paid for. I'm go

string. I can't see what makes you so wasteful. You should untie each package, carefully pic

s to be picking out hard knots. I bet this minute you've got a ball of string as

untying parcels long enough to kiss her mother, who

nd father taught me to be very particular about such things and goodness knows I've tried to t

Connecticut and had started to California on a hazard of new fortunes but had fallen by the wayside, landing in Kentucky where their habits

ing, Mother dear, and I'll try to do some making and b

aiming relations with folks that didn't even kn

in anybody and everybody from the third and fourth generation of them that hate to see her coming. Yesterday in Louisville I looked up the family in some o

ather, who had bought it from old Dick Buck. The house was a pleasant cottage of New England architecture, built closer to the road than is usual on Kentucky farms. Old Mr. Knight had also followed the traditions of his native state by building his barn with doors opening on the road. The barn was larger than the house, but at the present time Judith's little blue car and an old red c

s it was unless it was already exactly right and enough was not said until she had spoken her mind freely and fearlessly. Everything about this girl was free and fearless-her wa

wasteful like. Of course my folks were never ones to sit still and be taken care of like

?" asked Jud

as the keynote of life as well as religion. I reckon you must be a throw back to my mo

look at our wheat, Mother! It isn't fit to feed chickens with because our land is so poor. I'm tired of this eternal saving and no making. There is no reason why our yield shouldn't be

you have," si

by making cakes and pies and

you don't hurry me!

re to say all right witho

my breath asking, because I kne

s out of tin buckets with everything hot that ought to be cold and cold that ought to be hot. I heard them talking about it and complaining and the notion struck me. I went up and sat by the men a

s in despair. "Judy, you ju

he men are not bringing any supper from 50 hom

I would not

d out this evening, but I bet you in a week I'll be feeding a dozen men and they'll like it and pay me wel

ns, Judith, not a

so are the young onions. All conductors eat onions. They do it to keep people from standing on the back platform. I am certainly glad the line came through our place and we have a stop so near us. I'll have to order a dozen baskets with nice, neat covers and big enough to hold

ng potatoes, although it was then quite early in the forenoon an

s scratching around the hollyhocks, clucking loudly. The hen had a motherly air, having

ue's brood around her. "Now just look at that poor old hen! I wonder if she'd rather be a hen and have s

dith had sorted out her wares and stored them in the back of her 52 blue car. She had caught two chickens and dressed them and set a sponge for the hot roll

oment Judith was off and away, l

s she passed the house, and then her voice

as very peaceful on the shady porch with that whirlwind of a Judy gone for several hours on one of her crazy peddling jaunts. What a girl she was for plunging! Again the m

ke of her husband as her poor husband. That was because he had died in the first year of their marriage. Perhaps a merciful Providence had taken him off before he had time to

parents in regard to their mode of moving West-whether by wagon or rail-and the final decision to go by wagon because in that way they might save not only railroad fare but the bony team. Furniture was packed ready for shipment and stored in a neighbor's barn until they were sure in just what part of the West they would se

were included in the purchase. They lived in a two-room log house, a little behind the site Ezra had selected for his own domicile. This was the natural

ouses were not fifty feet apart, the back yard of the New England cottage serving as a front yard to the cabin. The days stretched into weeks, the weeks into months. Ezra grew impatient and the old Dick took to his bed with a mysterious malady that defied the skill of the country doctor. Mrs. Knight, a kindly soul, ministe

ral that he should also make one at the frugal board. When Ezra died, which he did ten years after he moved to Kentucky, old Dick and young Dick kindly offered to sit up with the corpse. The bereaved wife made the bed in the low-ceilinged attic room for them and w

and seemed to feel that they would have been destitute without his occasional donation of a small string of perch or a rabbit. Mrs. Knight tolerated him because she was used to him. Judith had a real affection for t

at the old soldiers and the drummer on the Rye House porch acknowledged later on. Even then the wire-spring energy was hers that still puzzled her mother-energy and an ever-present determination to get ahead. Sometimes she caught enough fish to sell a few. Sometimes she carried rabbits into the town for sale. In blackberry season she was

and the other four peddling toilet articles and a few side lines

rom the Norse sailor," sighed Mrs