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gave Miss Jones full credit for what she had done. One morning, in her white-enamelled kitchen, she said to Abner, "Addy told me about this dreener," pointing to the wire holdall in the sink, "great convenience. She's one of the smartest girls I ever see, Ab. They ain't no kind of a dish she don't know how to make; scientific, too. Domestic science, they call it. I wonder you don't notice her more, Ab; she certainly will make some man a good wife."

At this the Negro girl whom the Sandages had hired for a cook but to whom Mrs. Sandage had never been able to resign her pretty kitchen, gave an audible titter. It irritated the two white persons.

"Aline!" snapped Mrs. Sandage roughly, "mind your work!"

Aline, who was peeling turnips, continued her task in silence.

But the woman so recently from the poor farm could not correct her servant briefly or with dignity.

"Snickerin' like that before your betters—if I had my way I'd run ever' nigger—" She meant to add "out of the county," but realized in time that this sentiment characterized only the very poorest class of whites. She turned to Abner again.

"I think Addy is the liveliest girl; always in a flutter. Jim says it's put on, but I think it's nachel. She picked out all this chiner. I wanted some with more flowers, but she said I'd git tired of it, an' this does look sweet. I tell Jim I feel like some sort of a bride agin—an' it all come through the railroad."

"How did that do it?" asked Abner curiously.

"Brought business in the county. Made the trustee's office a very payin' job." Here she paused in her speech to adjust her new false teeth with her tongue. These teeth were too white, too broad, and too long. They gave her a corpse-like look when she smiled, so that her mirth was ghastly rather than merry. The plate was the work of the village dentist.

"Yes, the railroad shore made the trustee's office pay good.