"God be above us all! And whatever did herself do with a cook that drank in this place?" "I don't know. Aggie got married. Cooks _do_," said Sanford, much entertained by this person. Her deep voice was soft, emerging from the largest, reddest mouth he had ever seen. The size of her feet made him dubious as to her humanity. "Anyhow," he went on, "tell mother I'm not clean yet. What's your name?" "Onnie," said the new cook. "An' would this be the garden?" "Silly, what did you think?" "I'm a stranger in this place, Master San, an' I know not which is why nor forever after." Sanford's brain refused this statement entirely, and he blinked. "I guess you're Irish," he meditated. "I am. Do you be gettin' out of your tub now, an' Onnie'll dry you," she offered. "I can't," he said firmly; "you're a lady." "A lady? Blessed Mary save us from sin! A lady? Myself? I'm no such thing in this world at all; I'm just Onnie Killelia." She appeared quite horrified, and Sanford was astonished. She seemed to be a woman, for all her height and the extent of her hands. "Are you sure?" he asked. "As I am a Christian woman," said Onnie. "I never was a lady, nor could I ever be such a thing." "Well," said Sanford, "I don't know, but I suppose you can dry me." He climbed out of his tub, and this novel being paid kind attention to his directions. He began to like her, especially as her hair was of a singular, silky blackness, suggesting dark mulberries, delightful to the touch. He allowed her to kiss him and to carry him, clothed, back to the house on her shoulders, which were as hard as a cedar trunk, but covered with green cloth sprinkled with purple dots. "And herself's in the libr'y drinkin' tea," said his vehicle, depositing him on the veranda. "An' what might that be you'd be holdin'?" "Just a rattle off a snake." She examined the six-tiered, smoky rattle with a positive light in her dull, black eyes and crossed herself. "A queer country, where they do be bellin' the snakes! I heard the like in the gover'ment school before I did come over the west water, but I misbelieved the same. God's ways is strange, as the priests will be sayin'." "You can have it," said Sanford, and ran off to inquire of his mother the difference between women and ladies. Rawling, riding slowly, came up the driveway from the single lane of his village, and found the gigantic girl sitting on the steps so absorbed in this sinister toy that she jumped with a little yelp when he dismounted. "What have you there?" he asked, using his most engaging smile. "'Tis a snake's bell, your Honor, which Master San did be givin' me. 'Tis welcome indeed, as I lost off my holy medal, bein' sick, forever on the steamship crossin' the west water." "But--can you use a rattle for a holy medal?" said Rawling.