All this time I wasn't sayin' a word-jest grinnin' as though she tickled me half to death.

Gradually I begin to be scientific about it.

I got so that when she caught me laughin', I'd try my best to hide the grin.

Course that made it all the worse.

She fidgeted an' squirmed an' got red in the face till it looked like she was pickled.
Doggone, ef she didn't begin to neglect her business as a great-granddaughter! She didn't have time to lord it over her peasants.
She was too blame busy wonderin' what I was laughin' at.
[Illustration: "It was a wise, discreet old oak"] "'Nen she begin to look peaked an' thin.