"I dunno, Janice," she hesitated. "I gin'rally feel right po'ly after
dinner, and I'm use ter takin' forty winks."

Janice did not wonder that her aunt felt "right po'ly." She had eaten
more pork, potatoes, spring cabbage and fresh bread than would have
served a hearty man.

"Let's get rid of the dishes first, Aunty," said Janice, cheerfully "You
can get your nap afterward."

"Wa-al," agreed Mrs. Day, slowly rising. "I dunno's there's water enough
to more'n give 'em a lick and a promise. Marty! Oh, you Marty! Come, go
for a pail of water, will ye? That's a good boy."

"Now, ye know well enough," snarled Jason's voice just outside the
door, "that that boy ain't in earshot now."

"Oh, _I_ can get a pail of water from the pump, Aunty," said Janice,
briskly starting for the porch.

"But that pump ain't goin'," declared Mrs. Day. "An' no knowin' when
'twill be goin'. We have ter lug all our water from Dickerson's."

"Oh, gimme the bucket!" snapped Uncle Jason, putting his great, hairy
hand inside the door and snatching the water-pail from the shelf.
"Wimmen-folks is allus a-clatterin' about suthin'!"

Janice had never imagined people just like these relatives of hers. She
was both ashamed and amused,--ashamed of their ill-breeding and amused
by their useless bickering.

"Wa-al," said her aunt, yawning and lowering herself upon the kitchen
couch, the springs of which squeaked complainingly under her weight,
"Wa-al, 'tain't scurcely wuth doin' the dishes _now_. Jason'll stop and
gab 'ith some one. It takes him ferever an' a day ter git a pail o'
water. You go on about your play, Niece Janice. I'll git 'em done erlone
somehow, by-me-by."

Mrs. Day closed her eyes while she was still speaking. She was evidently
glad to relax into her old custom again.

Janice took down her aunt's sunbonnet from the nail by the side door and
went out. Amusement had given place in the girl's mind to something
like actual shrinking from these relatives and their ways. The porch
boards gave under even her weight. Some of them were broken. The steps
were decrepit, too. The pump handle was tied down, she found, when she
put a tentative hand upon it.

"'It jest rattles,'" quoted Janice; but no laugh followed the sigh which
was likewise her involuntary comment upon the situation.

CHAPTER IV

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

There was a long, well-shaded yard behind the house, bordered on the
upper hand by the palings of the garden fence.