hey air gonter hab a
meetin' er the whole bilin' an' decide."

"Do!" fired Judith. "They will do nothing. You can tell them for me
that I don't give a hang whether they want to claim kin with me or
not. They did not have the making of me and I am what I am regardless
of them. I know perfectly well that I am descended from the same
original Bucknors but I'm glad my ancestor mislaid part of the name
and I wouldn't have the last syllable back for anything in the
world."

"Yassum!" gasped Billy.

"Uncle Billy, I didn't mean to be cross with you," laughed Judith, her
anger gone as quickly as it had come, "but it does rile me for the
family to think themselves so important and to feel they can have a
meeting and make me kin to them or not as they please."

Billy, mounted on Cupid and leading Puck, rode slowly off. He wagged
his great beard and talked solemnly to himself.

"Well now, you ol' fool nigger, you done broke yo' 'lasses pitcher.
Whe'fo' you so nimble-come-trimble ter tell little missy 'bout the
fambly confab? 'Cause you done hearn Marse Big Josh 'sputin' with
Marse Bob Bucknor at the ball consarnin' the Bucks an' Bucknors ain't
no reason whe'fo' you gotta be so bigity. Ain't yo' mammy done tell
you, time an' agin, that ain't no flies gonter crawl in a shet mouf?
All you had ter do wa' ter go an' give Miss Judy Buck the trinket an'
kinder git mo' 'quainted an', little by little, git her ter look at
things yo' way. You could er let drop kinder accidental like that she
wa' kinfolks 'thout bein' so 'splicit. She done got her back up now
an' I ain't a blamin' her. She sho' did put me in min' er my Miss Ann
when she wa' a gal, the way she hilt up her haid an' jawed back at the
fambly. An' she would er talked the same way if Marse Big Josh an'
Marse Little Josh an' Marse Bob Bucknor theyselves had 'a' been there
an' all the women folk besides. That little gal ain't feared er
nobody. She done tol' me ter say she wouldn't have back that extry
syllabub on her name fer nothin'. I reckon if I'd tell Marse Jeff that
he'd go up in the air for fair. But this nigger is done talkin'--done
talkin'."

He rode on, his brown old face furrowed with trouble. His bowed legs
stuck out comically and the long tails of his blue coat spread
themselves out on Cupid's broad back.

"An' that putty little cabin in the back, with po'ch an' all, an'
little missy done say it got furnisher in it too," he murmured
plaintively.

CHAPTER