"Judith, how you do run on! Aren't you afraid that that Jeff Bucknor will think you are running after him?" "Not in the least. He's not that kind of a man. I know by the way his ears are set and the way his hair grows on his forehead and the way his eyes crinkle up at the corners as though he never missed a joke. People who never miss jokes don't go around thinking other persons are running after them all the time. I know by the way he looks out of his eyes. It isn't only his eyes that look at you but there is something behind them that looks at you. I reckon if I were a sissy girl I'd say his eyes were soulful, but you see I'm not. I tell you, Mumsy, my Cousin Jeff is a powerful likely young man and I'm quite proud of him. Too bad he doesn't know he's my kin." Mrs. Buck sighed. "I guess he wouldn't claim relationship with you if he did know. Those Bucknors of Buck Hill are a proud-stomached lot. They've been dusting me on the pike ever since I was a little girl--dusting me and never even seeing me." "Did you ever speak to them?" "Of course not. I was never one to put myself forward." "Well, why should they speak to you any more than you speak to them? Aren't you as good as they are? Surely, and a great deal prettier. You are as much prettier than Mrs. Bucknor as a day lily is prettier than a cabbage rose," declared Judith. "Oh, how you do talk, Judy! Of course, when I say they didn't ever speak I mean they never went out of their way to speak. When we had deaths over here they kind of acted neighborly like and sent word to call on them if we needed anything, but we never did, as my mother and I always saved mourning from time to time. I guess they'd have been a little more back-and-forth friendly if it hadn't have been for your Grandfather Buck. He was kind of difficult like when he was drinking and that was most times. He was either drinking or getting over drunks as a general thing. Then he was mighty lazy and shiftless." "Poor Mumsy! You've had a right hard time with us Bucks. Grandfather Buck was so lazy he worried you to death and I'm so energetic I know I annoy you terribly. But all this talking isn't selling toilet articles to house parties. By the way, I got a 'phone message from my motormen. They want six suppers this evening. That means I must run into Ryeville and buy some more baskets and lay in provisions of all kinds. I wish I'd been triplets, or at least twins. I could accomplish so much more." "Land sakes, Judy! Surely you do enough as it is. All six dinners at once?"