She was crooning a dismal song softly to herself,--something about "Mary and Martha in deep distress, A-grievin' ovah brer Laz'rus' death." It gave him such a creepy sort of feeling that he stuck his fingers in his ears to shut out the sound.

Thus barricaded, he did not hear slow footsteps shuffling up the path; but presently the powerful fumes of a rank pipe told of an approaching visitor.

He took his fingers from his ears and sat up.
Uncle Billy and Aunt Susan had come over to gossip a while.

Mammy groped her way into the house to drag out the wooden rocker for her sister-in-law, while Uncle Billy tilted himself back against the cabin in a straight splint-bottomed chair.

The usual opening remarks about the state of the family health, the weather, and the crops were of very little interest to John Jay; indeed he nearly fell asleep while Aunt Susan was giving a detailed account of the way she cured the misery in her side.