Little Buck, despairing of granny's interference, began to cry. At the sound Judith came suddenly out of a revery to spring up and catch him away from the hateful restraining hands. "I don't know what the Lord's a-thinkin' about to let sech men as you live, Blatch Turrentine!" she said almost mechanically. "Ef I was a-tendin' to matters I'd 'a' had you dead long ago. Ef you're good for anything on this earth I don't know what it is." "Oh, yes you do," Blatchley returned as the old man started down the steps. "I'd make the best husband for you of any feller in the two Turkey Tracks--and you'll find it out one of these days." The girl answered only with a contemptuous glance. "Come again--when you ain't got so long to stay," Nancy sped them sourly. "Jude, you'd better set awhile and get your skirts dry." She looked after Blatch as he moved up the road, then at little Buck, so ashamed of his trembling lip. Her face darkened angrily. She turned slowly to Judith. "What you gwine to do with that feller, Jude?" she queried significantly. "Do? Why, nothin'. He ain't nothin' to me," responded the girl indifferently. "He ain't, hey? Well, he's bound to marry ye, honey," said the older woman. "Huh, he ain't the first--and won't be the last, I reckon," assented Judith easily. "Ye'd better watch out fer that man, Jude," persisted Nancy, after a moment's silence. "He'll git ye, yet. I know his kind. He ain't a-keerin' fer yo' ruthers--whether you want him or no. He jest aims to have _you_." "Well, I reckon he'll about have to aim over agin," observed the unmoved Judith. "An' Elder Drane? Air ye gwine to take him?--I know he's done axed ye," pursued Nancy hesitantly. "'Bout 'leven times," agreed Judith with perfect seriousness. "No--I wouldn't have the man, not ef he's made of pure gold." She added with a sudden little smile and a catch of the breath: "Them's awful nice chaps o' his; I'd most take him to git them. The baby now--hit's the sweetest thing!" And she tumbled Beezy tumultuously in her lap, then suddenly inquired, apparently without any volition of her own, "Aunt Nancy, did you know Creed Bonbright's folks?" "Good Lord, yes!" returned old Nancy. "But come on inside and set, Jude. This sun ain't a-goin' to dry yo' skirt. Come in to the fire. Don't take that thar cheer, the behime legs is broke, an' it's apt to lay you sprawling. I've knowed Creed Bonbright sence he wasn't knee-high to a turkey, and I knowed his daddy afore him, and his grand-daddy, for the matter of that." Avoiding the treacherous piece of furniture against which she had been warned, Judith slipped out of her wet riding-skirt and arranged it in front of the fire to dry, turning then and seating herself on the broad hearth at Nancy's knee, where she prompted feverishly, "And is all the Bonbrights moved out of the neighbourhood?" The old woman drew a few meditative whiffs on her pipe.