spare corner of Byrdsville,
where you wouldn't even expect a tree to be; and ever since I have
been in this town I have been finding a new one stretching out its
crooked old arms to me as if to welcome me or bar my path. There is
one that grows half in and half out of Judge Luttrell's yard, so the
fence has to consider it a kind of post and stop at it to begin again
on the other side, while three of them are trying to completely close
up the door of the court-house on the Public Square. All the streets
are bordered with them, set along at ragged intervals with the tall
old maples, and all the gardens and yards have regiments of them
camped about the doors and walks.

Three nights ago I went to sleep in a nice orderly old town, and I
awoke the next morning in the middle of a great white and pink and
green bouquet, which must smell up at least to the first of the seven
heavens, and which is buzzing so with bees that it sounds like an
orchestra getting ready to burst out into some kind of a new, great
hymn. And everybody in Byrdsville is buzzing around in a chorus with
the bees, cleaning house and going visiting and shopping at the stores
down on the Square. I am as industriously doing likewise as I can, and
have bought things from almost everybody until my brain is feeble from
trying to think up things to ask for in the different stores. Oh, the
things I could buy if Roxanne would just let me!

One trouble is, there are no really poor people in Byrdsville, and
those on the verge of it are taken care of by the different church
societies, which look after them so carefully that they come very near
stepping on each others' toes. The incident of old Mr. and Mrs.
Satterwhite came near being a case in point. Mr. Satterwhite has
always been a Presbyterian, and Mrs. Satterwhite disagreed with her
husband seriously enough to be a Methodist. They have no children and
have been getting poorer and poorer, though keeping both honest and
good, except for their religious differences. When the cold weather
came this winter, they had no coal to keep their respective
rheumatisms warm and they nearly froze to death arguing about which
one of their respective church societies they should ask help from;
and when they were both chattering cold they compromised on asking
both. Then they got two loads of coal, which was more than they
needed, and which offended both societies, so that when they asked for
some kindling to light the fire with,