dney remembered the unbuilt bird-house and indulged herself to the
full of melancholy. It is not improbable that, if she had been asked to
name the chiefest disappointment of her wretched married life, she would
have mentioned the bird-house that was never built.

At mention of it Warren Rodney murmured broken, deprecatory excuses. His
dull eyes nervously travelled about the table for some one to make excuses
for him. The family broke into hearty peals of laughter; the tragedy of
the first generation had grown to be the unfailing source of merriment for
the second.

"Maw," began Orlando, "the reason you don't get no bird-house built out
hyear is that they ain't no birds. We have offered time and time again to
build you a house fo' buzzuds, they bein' the only birds hyearabouts, but
you 'low that you ain't fav'ble to tamin' 'em."

"I wuz raised in Tennessee, an' we-uns had a house for martins made out'n
gourds, an' it was pearty." The pride with which she repeated this
particular claim to honor in an alien land never diminished with
repetition. As she advanced further through the dim perspective of years,
the little mountain town in Tennessee became more and more the centre of
cultivation and civic importance. The desolate cabin that she had left for
the interminable journey westward was recalled flatteringly through the
hallowing mists of time. The children, by reason of these chronicles, had
grown to regard their mother as a sort of princess in exile.

"Mrs. Rodney"--Swift leaned towards her and whispered something in her ear.
She regarded him tentatively, then grinned. At her time of life, why
should she put faith in the promises of men? "You fix it up, an' you get
your bird-house," was the conclusion of his sentence.

While this discussion had been in progress the viands had not been
neglected except by such members of the company as had been bereft of
appetite by loftier emotions--in consequence of which the table appeared to
have sustained a visitation of seventeen-year locusts. Eudora, ever
economic in the value she placed not only upon herself but her
environment, proposed to her guests that they should wash the dishes, an
art in which they were by no means deficient, being no exception to the
majority of range bachelors in their skill in homely pursuits. And thus it
came to pass that Eudora's suitors, swathed in aprons, meekly washed
dishes shoulder to shoulder, while their souls craved the performance of
va