“Miss Vallie, she sot at de table doin’ some kind er rufflin’, an’ I sot back ag’in de wall in one er dem ar high-back cheers. What we said I’ll never tell you, suh, bekaze I’m one er deze kinder folks what ain’t no sooner set down an’ git still dan dey goes ter noddin’. Dat’s me. Set me down in a cheer, high-back er low-back, an’ I’m done gone! I kin set here on de step an’ keep des ez wide-’wake ez a skeer’d rabbit, but set me down in a cheer—well, suh, I’d like ter see anybody keep me ’wake when dat’s de case. “Dar I sot in dat ar high-back cheer, Miss Vallie rufflin’ an’ flutin’ sump’n, an’ tryin’ ter make me talk, an’ my head rollin’ ’roun’ like my neck done broke. Bimeby, _blam! blam!_ come on de do’. We got one er dem ar jinglin’ bells now, suh, but in dem times we had a knocker, an’ it soun’ like de roof fallin’ in. I like ter jumped out’n my skin. Miss Vallie drapped her conflutements an’ ’low, ‘What in de worl’! Aunt Minervy Ann, go ter de do’.’ [Illustration: “He been axin’ me lots ’bout Miss Vallie.”] “Well, suh, I went, but I ain’t had no heart in it, bekaze I ain’t know who it mought be, an’ whar dey come fum, an’ what dey want. But I went. ’Twuz me er Miss Vallie, an’ I want gwine ter let dat chile go, not dat time er night, dough ’twa’n’t so mighty late. “I open de do’ on de crack, I did, an’ ’low, ‘Who dat?’ Somebody make answer, ‘Is de Major in, Aunt Minervy Ann?’ an’ I know’d right den it wuz Marse Paul Conant. An’ it come over me dat he had sump’n ter do wid sendin’ er dem contraptions, mo’ ’speshually dat ar bob-tail hoss. An’ den, too, suh, lots quicker’n I kin tell it, hit come over me dat he been axin’ me lots ’bout Miss Vallie. All come ’cross my min’, suh, whiles I pullin’ de do’ open. “I ’low, I did, ‘No, suh; Marse Tumlin gone down town fer ter look atter some business, but he sho ter come back terreckly. Won’t you come in, suh, an’ wait fer ’im?’ He sorter flung his head back an’ laugh, saft like, an’ say, ‘I don’t keer ef I do, Aunt Minervy Ann.’ “I ’low, ‘Walk right in de parlor, suh, an’ I’ll make a light mos’ ’fo’ you kin turn ’roun’.’ He come in, he did, an’ I lit de lamp, an’ time I lit ’er she ’gun ter smoke. Well, suh, he tuck dat lamp, run de wick up an’ down a time er two, an’ dar she wuz, bright ez day. “When I went back in de room whar Miss Vallie wuz at, she wuz stan’in’ dar lookin’ skeer’d. She say, ‘Who dat?’ I ’low, ‘Hit’s Marse Paul Conant, dat’s who ’tis.’ She say, ‘What he want?’ I ’low, ‘Nothin’ much; he does come a-courtin’. Better jump up an’ not keep ’im waitin’.’ “Well, suh, you could ’a’ knock’d ’er down wid a fedder. She stood dar wid ’er han’ on ’er th’oat takin’ short breffs, des like a little bird does when it flies in de winder an’ dunner how ter fly out ag’in.