"That's Uncle Mel Burgstresser. Don't he look like Charles Dickens, th' great Scotch poet, though? I think he does, exactly. He's ma's uncle, but he's sich a nice man that even pa likes him. They can't nobody help likin' him, he's so nice; but ever'body laughs at him, he says sich blunderin' things sometimes. Onct when Aunt Alviny (that's his wife) was a-makin' oyster soup, Uncle Mel he come and looked over her shoulder and says, 'Put lots o' water in it, mother, 'cause I'm hungry,' he says. "Turn over." [Illustration] "That's my cousin, Willie Sparks, same age as me--but not when that pitchure was took. He wasn't only 9 then. Don't he look awful meek? But mebbe you think he ain't got a temper! One time when his pa come home from work after dark and Willie ain't got his chores done, he scolded him, and when Willie brung in th' coal fer th' kitchen stove he was cryin' and he jist hauls off, he's s' mad, and kicks th' stove an awful welt, and says, 'Yuh will burn coal, will yuh!' he says. "Turn over." [Illustration] "That's ma's cousin, Rebecca, and her man, took th' day they was married. Him and her quarreled somethin' awful, she gener'ly havin' th' upper hand. I was named after her." [Illustration] "That there's Peletiah Parrett, a friend of pa's since they was boys. He's a singin' school teacher and he's been to our house lots of times, but he lives at Ohio. He kin sing awful good. You'd jist ort t' hear him sing--well, I fergit what th' name of th' piece is but it goes like this: "'Three dretful groans he heered And then her ghost appeared From head t' foot besmeared Weth purple gore.'" [Illustration] "Pa's cousin Stella, dressed up in some of her ma's old clothes fer a mask ball. Pa drawed in that streak and that printin'. He's a reg'lar artist and he ain't never had a lesson in his life, neither. "He calls this pitchure 'Stella as Ajax defyin' th' lightnin'!'" [Illustration] "Here's Deacon Samuel Phillips. He married ma's greatuncle Myron's widow, but I don't know what relation that makes him t' us. He's an awful good man, but clost. Pa says onct he got an awful jolt t' Chicago, where him and some other men went t' sell their stock. It seems that after they got their tradin' done they went down town t' one of them stylish hotels fer dinner. Deacon hadn't never been in one of them places before and didn't know nothin' 'bout 'm. There was breaded veal cutlets on th' bill-of-fare and Deacon liked 'm, so he ordered 'm, along with a lot of other stuff, without noticin' th' price. Bimeby th' bill come, and it was fer two-fifty. 'Two-fifty!' the deacon hollers. 'Why Heck! man, I kin buy a calf fer that money!' he says. "Turn over." [Illustration]