thing over your head."

Miss Ann assured him she would.

"By crickity! Who is that girl speaking to the old men now? That
red-headed girl in the fairy queen dress? Bless Bob, if it ain't old
Dick Buck's granddaughter. I used to give her a lift into school when
she was a kid. I tell you she's got some style about her. Looks more
born and bred than any gal here. I don't see where she got it from."

"From the Bucknors!" announced Miss Ann, firmly.

"Bucknors! Oh, come now, Cousin Ann, you aren't going to come that old
gag on me. Old Dick Buck used to boast he was our kin when he got
drunk, but it is absurd. Drunk or sober, he was no relation of ours."

"He was your cousin, both drunk and sober. I've heard my grandfather
tell--" and Miss Ann launched into the tale.

"Well, by gad, if she's of the blood we ought to recognize her!"
declared Big Josh, smiting his thigh with a resounding smack. "I'll
speak to the family about it. Little Josh will be here to-night and
Cousin Betty Throckmorton's Philip and no doubt many of the clan. I
tell you I wouldn't mind claiming kin with a gal like that, especially
now that old Dick Buck is dead."

CHAPTER XIV

On With the Dance

Others besides Big Josh had noticed Judith as she came forward to
speak to her old friends. Her dress, a shimmer of white and gold,
might have been wished on her by a fairy godmother, a thing of
gossamer and moonbeams.

"Who is it?"

"Who can it be?"

"Nobody but little Judy Buck, you say?"

"Where did she get her clothes?"

"Worked like a nigger and bought 'em! Why not? She's the best little
worker in town. Got a bunch of irons in the fire and she surely ought
to get some clothes out of it."

"But old Dick Buck's granddaughter's got no right to be mixing with
county society."

"The Knights were a good sort and Dick wasn't anything but lazy and
trifling and sometimes a little tipsy. There wasn't anything mean
about old Dick."

"Well, she's a humdinger for looks, is all I've got to say."

So the talk went around. Judith, all unconscious of having attracted
attention, shook hands gaily with the old men and all but kissed them
in her joy, and promised to dance with every one of them and
immediately had her card filled with trembly-looking autographs.

"Won't you dance, Mrs. Buck?" suggested Colonel Crutcher, but Mrs.
Buck declined with agitated blushes, declaring her health was too
feeble for such carryings-on.

"Well, I'm going to