life, I was always going to remember that warm and sweet and sunny
things are sure to come again, if at times they seem dead and buried,
and that I would try not to see the cranks and queernesses of people as
much as I was by nature inclined to do; and then I went right back to
Miss Susanna's, and before I knew it I had said something I oughtn't,
and to Mr. Willie Prince.

Every time I see Mr. Willie I thank God he is no relation of mine. He
is the only man boarder in the house, which is another thing to be
thankful for; but, though he is hard to stand, he is nearly sixty and a
human being, and I ought to remember what I forget and yesterday I
didn't remember. He was the only son of his mother and should have
been a daughter, and in trying to make him one his maternal parent
succeeded better than in anything else she ever attempted, Miss Bettie
Simcoe says--and she ought to know, being his first cousin. His
business is telling people what they don't want to hear; and, though he
doesn't do any work, a hound dog couldn't run a rabbit down quicker
than he can a piece of gossip, and when he isn't sitting on somebody's
front porch fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan, from which he is
never separated in summer, he is down at the drug-store hearing and
being heard. He thinks he is handsome, and he is as proud of his pink
cheeks as a goose of her gander, and I'm sure he puts something on them
on cool days. If he could wear some blue ribbon on his sandy hair and
have trousers and coats to match his fancy vests he would be perfectly
happy. As a man he is a poor job, but as a Miss Nancy he is perfect,
and when yesterday I came in from my ride he made me so mad that I
popped out something I shouldn't have popped and before I knew I was
going to do it.

He was sitting on the porch when I came up, fanning as hard as he could
fan, and as I went by he stopped me. "I would advise you to be more
careful when you go in wading at the creek, Miss Kitty," he said, "It
isn't customary for young ladies in Twickenham Town to do such things
and--"

"And where I came from it isn't customary for gentlemen to follow young
ladies and see what they do," I said, and the minute the words were out
I knew I shouldn't have said them, for his face got as red as a beet
and he jumped up and walked into the house.

I don't know that he really followed Sallie Sclater, who's a visiting
girl, and myself to see if we went wading, but we certainly we