ills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds
He all.'"

I quoted the lines musingly, watching meanwhile their effect on Aunt
Jane. Her eyes sparkled as her quick brain took in the meaning of the
poet's words.

"That's it!" she exclaimed,--"that's it! I don't mind waitin' myself
and seein' other folks wait, too, a reasonable time, but I do like to
see everybody, sooner or later, git the grist that rightly belongs to
'em."

[Illustration]

VI

THE BAPTIZING AT KITTLE CREEK

[Illustration]

"There's a heap o' reasons for folks marryin'," said Aunt Jane,
reflectively. "Some marries for love, some for money, some for a home;
some marries jest to spite somebody else, and some, it looks like,
marries for nothin' on earth but to have somebody always around to
quarrel with about religion. That's the way it was with Marthy and
Amos Matthews. I don't reckon you ever heard o' Marthy and Amos, did
you, child? It's been many a year since I thought of 'em myself. But
last Sunday evenin' I was over at Elnora Simpson's, and old Uncle Sam
Simpson was there visitin'. Uncle Sam used to live in the neighborhood
o' Goshen, but he moved up to Edmonson County way back yonder, I can't
tell when, and every now and then he comes back to see his
grandchildren. He's gittin' well on towards ninety, and I'm thinkin'
this is about the last trip the old man'll make till he goes on his
long journey. I was mighty glad to see him, and me and him set and
talked about old times till the sun went down. What he didn't remember
I did, and what I didn't remember he did; and when we got through
talkin', Elnora--that's his grandson's wife--says, 'Well, Uncle Sam,
if I could jest take down everything you and Aunt Jane said to-day,
I'd have a pretty good history of everybody that ever lived in this
county.'

"Uncle Sam was the one that started the talk about Marthy and Amos.
He'd been leanin' on his cane lookin' out o' the door at Elnora's
twins playin' on the grass, and all at once he says, says he, 'Jane,
do you ricollect the time they had the big babtizin' down at Kittle
Creek?' And he got to laughin', and I got to laughin', and we set
there and cackled like a pair o' old fools, and nobody but us two
seein' anything funny about it."

Aunt Jane's ready laugh began again at the mere remembrance of her
former mirth. I kept discreetly silent, fearing to b