Emma Speed Sampson

“ How can you go near those people when they treat you like the dust under their feet?”
“But, Mumsy, they don’t. People can’t treat you like dust under their feet unless you are beneath them, and I’m not in the least teensy weensy bit beneath the Bucknors of Buck Hill. Now they might treat me like the dust in the air—the dust they have to breathe when the wind blows—breathe that or stop breathing altogether. They might not like to breathe me in. I might be a little thick for them, but breathe me they must. I did not make myself kin to them. I just am kin to them. ”

“ Breathless but triumphant she stood, large basket in one hand, buttermilk cooler in the other.
The big motor car, which was driven by Jeff Bucknor, was parked by the roadside. From it emerged Mildred and Nan in all the glory of fresh and frilly lawns and the latest in hats from a Louisville milliner.
“Now, Jeff,” said Mildred, “you must get out and meet the bunch, and be sure you make no mistake. You are to fall in love with Jean Roland and no one else. She is the smallest and the darkest and much the best dressed. I do hope and trust it will be love at first sight. ”

“ Mildred, why didn’t you let us know you were to have a fancy dress ball?” cried Jean Roland, and all of the gay young things gathered in the broad hall looked up as Miss Ann descended. To most of them she was but a figure of fun.
“Oh, that’s nobody but old Cousin Ann Peyton,” explained Mildred. “She’s our chronic visitor. She always dresses like a telephone doll.”
Miss Ann heard both remarks, but gave no sign of annoyance, except to hold her head with added dignity. A chronic visitor could not afford to show resentment at the thoughtless rudeness of young persons. ”

“ Ann Peyton go to an old ladies’ home? Cousin Betty you must be in a jocular vein,” and Uncle Billy saw through the open door that his mistress drew herself up like a queen and her eyes flashed.
“Well, plenty of persons quite as good as you go to such homes every day,” insisted the hostess. “I should think you would prefer having a regular home and not driving from pillar to post, never knowing where you will land next and never sure whether your relations will have room for you or not. ”

“ Old Billy had wormed his way into the ballroom with the pretext of having to carry Miss Ann’s shawl. Quietly he slipped up the stairs into the balcony and, hiding behind the festooned bunting, he peeped down on his beloved mistress as she stood, a quaint, old-fashioned figure, making her bow to the receiving line.
“By gad, Miss Ann, you are looking fit,” said Major Fitch. “We are proud to have you with us. I hope you will save me a dance. Yes, yes! We are going to have some reels and lancers and some good old time quadrilles. If the young uns don’t like it they can lump it. ”

“ The trolley car stopped. Eager hands were ready to receive the heavy cooler and laden basket. Only one passenger—a man—alighted and then the car sped on. Judith picked up the basket of empty dishes and milk can that had been deposited on the platform and turned to follow the path homeward. Jeff sprang to his feet, meaning to hasten to her and relieve her of her burden, when his intention was changed by seeing the man who had just alighted from the trolley walk quickly to her side. ”

“ Oh, Buck Hill was a place for lovers! The garden a place of all places!
The house party was in full swing. Five guests had arrived on the six-thirty and three more on the seven o’clock trolley and a car of six had driven over from Lexington in time for supper. The mansion was filled and running over, but the overflow could always be taken care of in “The Office,” a cottage near the house, a building quite common in old southern homes, often set aside for young male visitors.
Cousin Ann had been lying down all afternoon in response to the earnest pleadings of old Billy. ”

“ Cousin Betty Throckmorton’s? Well, well! I thought Sister Sue was to have the honor of your company. It will keep! It will keep! Measles at Cousin Betty’s? Heavens! I hope none of them will go off in pneumonia. You must give us a nice long visit. Always glad to have you, Cousin Ann. Glad to have any of my kin come and stay as long as they choose. Blood is thicker than water, I say, and blue blood is thicker than red blood.”
“Thank you, cousin,” was all Miss Ann could say.
“By the way, Mildred, speaking of falling in love, who is that pretty girl I saw on the trolley yesterday?” asked Jeff. ”

“ This popularity of a person who had always rubbed her the wrong way was wormwood to Mildred Bucknor, and for her brother and Tom Harbison to be rivals for Judith’s favor added gall to the wormwood. Not that Mildred was not having a very good time herself. Indeed, she was always something of a belle and never lacked for partners, but she had other plans for her brother on the one hand and on the other Tom Harbison had paid her enough attention for her to consider him in a measure her property. ”

“ He is proud of having a house,” laughed Judith. “His turkey red curtains are up now and his geranium slips started. He has put on a fresh coat of whitewash, within and without, and his floor is scrubbed so clean you could really make up biscuit on it. It is gratifying, Mumsy, that we have been able to make two old people as happy as we have Cousin Ann and old Uncle Billy. I only hope Cousin Ann doesn’t bother you.”
“Lands sakes, child, she is a heap of company for me and she is a great help. I don’t see how such an old person can step around so lively. ”

“ When she went to her car to get the wares stored in the back it was Harbison who sprang forward to assist her. Jeff watched the couple as they went down the walk to the yard gate and a suppressed fury gripped him when he noticed that Tom was much closer to Judith than was necessary. He knew perfectly well that Tom Harbison always walked too close to any girl, and had a habit of leaning over any member of the fair sex with a protecting air, occasionally touching her elbow as though to assist her over anything, even so small as a pebble, that might be in her way. ”

“ Of course entertaining a handsome young woman of lively and engaging manners, whose beaux were legion, was very different from having a peculiar old lady in a hoop skirt descend upon you unawares from a shabby coach drawn by fat old horses that looked as though they might not go another step in spite of the commands of the grotesque coachman with his plaited beard and bushy white hair. ”

“ So Miss Ann merely took Judith’s hand in hers and pressed it gently. All she said was, “I am so happy to have met you.”
“Oh, thank you, Miss Peyton. I am indeed glad to know you.” Judith had almost called her cousin. She devoutly hoped nobody had noticed it, but there was no time for repinings because one was stand-offish. Too many persons must be introduced to the debutante. Even had Mildred Bucknor been inclined to chat with her former schoolmate she would not have been allowed to do it. There were others who pressed forward to greet the fairy godchild of the old men of Ryeville. ”

“ People who never miss jokes don’t go around thinking other persons are running after them all the time. I know by the way he looks out of his eyes. It isn’t only his eyes that look at you but there is something behind them that looks at you. I reckon if I were a sissy girl I’d say his eyes were soulful, but you see I’m not. I tell you, Mumsy, my Cousin Jeff is a powerful likely young man and I’m quite proud of him. Too bad he doesn’t know he’s my kin.”
Mrs. Buck sighed. “I guess he wouldn’t claim relationship with you if he did know. Those Bucknors of Buck Hill are a proud-stomached lot. ”

“ Wigs do not last forever and Miss Ann had begun to realize that before many weeks a new one would be imperative. A new wig meant even greater scrimping than usual for Billy and his mistress. Funds must be very carefully handled when such an outlay became necessary. It was next in importance to a new horse, and greater than renewing a wheel on the coach. She had never dreamed that she might get along without a wig. She had begun wearing a wig many years ago, when her hair turned gray in spots. ”

“ Billy, no doubt with hot water and maybe an early cup of coffee.
“Come in!”
It was Judith bearing a tray of breakfast.
“Not a bit of use in your getting up early, Cousin Ann, but every reason for you to have breakfast while it is fresh and hot, so I just brought it in to you. I often make my mother stay in bed for breakfast if she is not feeling very strong. There is nothing like starting the day with something in your tummy. It is a lovely day with a touch of autumn in the air. I do hope you slept.” ”

“ Mildred continued her diatribe concerning the lively Judith: “Surely you remember her, Jeff. She used to come here selling blackberries when she was a kid—a little barefooted girl and as pert as you please even then. After old Dick Buck died she used to trap rabbits and bring them here for sale and sometimes fish. It always made me mad for Aunt Em’ly to encourage her by making Mother buy the things. I think poor persons should be taken care of all right but they should know their place.” ”

“ She’s too healthy-minded not to like beaux. There she comes now! I can see her car way up the street—just a blue speck,” cried Judge Middleton.
“Sure enough! There she is! She’s got her mother in with her.”
“That’s not Mrs. Buck. Mrs. Buck always sits in Judy’s car as though she were scared to death—and she hasn’t white hair either.”
“Hi, Miss Judy!”
“Hi, yourself!” and Judith stopped her car in front of the hotel.
“Boys, that’s Miss Ann Peyton!” cried Major Fitch. “Miss Ann or I’ll eat my hat!”
“She’s already eaten her wig. No wonder we didn’t know her! And she’s left off her hoops!” ”

“ Pete Barnes has put his name down. See!” She held it up for Jeff’s inspection. Pete had written, “Set this dance out with your true admirer, Pete Barnes.”
“Nonsense,” cried Jeff. “You mustn’t sit out dances with old men when young men are dy—want to dance with you.”
“Mustn’t I though? Not when old men have been good to me beyond belief? These are my old men and I wouldn’t break an engagement with one of them for a pretty. Mr. Pete Barnes had a sabre cut once that made him a little lame and he can’t dance, so I promised to sit out the waltz with him,” explained Judith. ”

“ Little Josh Bucknor had said, when approached by his cousin, Big Josh. “It’s a great deal easier to get relations than it is to get rid of them. Ahem—Cousin Ann, for instance! Cousin Ann is so distantly related to us that one cannot trace the kinship, but we got started wrong with her in old days and now you would think she was as close as a mother or something. ”

“ What was he doing back again when he had told Mildred he had an important engagement? Was his engagement with Judith Buck? She had not looked as though she expected anyone as she stood swinging her cooler. But then one can never tell. Young men don’t go gallivanting after girls unless they are encouraged. On the other hand, what encouragement had Judith given him, Jeff Bucknor? None!
However, Tom Harbison certainly had no right to play fast and loose with his sister, Mildred. Jeff tried to persuade himself that his anger against Tom was solely the righteous anger of a brother. ”

“ The ten old men were very much excited as the time approached for their ball. The skating rink was swept and garnished and decorated with bunting and flags, and wreaths of immortelles rented from the undertaker. Extra chairs were also furnished by that accommodating person. The caterer from Louisville came in a truck, bringing with him stylish negro waiters and many freezers and hampers. The musicians arrived on the seven o’clock trolley, almost filling one car with their great drums and saxophones and bass fiddles. ”

“ Big Josh’s daughters have read the riot act, so I hear, and they say if their old cousin comes to them without being invited they are going to try some visiting on their own hook and leave Big Josh to do the entertaining. They say he is great on big talk about family ties and the obligations of kinship but that they have all the trouble and when their Cousin Ann Peyton visits them he simply takes himself off and leaves them to do the work. Big Josh lives up such a muddy lane it’s hard to keep servants. ”

“ There was an expression of infinite pathos on the countenance of the old darkey as he opened the door of the ancient coach. Bowing low, as though to royalty, he said, “Miss Ann, we air done arrive.” 27
Jeff Bucknor took his mother’s arm and gently led her down the walk. Involuntarily she stiffened under his affectionate grasp and held back. It was all very well for the men of the family to take the stand they did concerning Cousin Ann Peyton and her oft-repeated visits. Men had none of the bother of company. ”

“ Judith laughed merrily. “Well, I reckon they’d come anyhow if they wanted to, but I must say, Mumsy, I’m kind of snobbish about your so-called beaux. I might like the boys if they would only stop being so silly and understand that I’m a human being with a mind and soul. I reckon I’ve always been too busy to play much with the boys around Ryeville. The old men like me though.” ”

“ Every time I go to Louisville a friend takes me up. Not afraid a bit—love it. Of course I know how to run the motor—simplest thing in the world. All you have to remember is not to sneeze while you are up in the air. Sneezing is sometimes fatal. It destroys your equilibrium as nothing else does and you are liable to make a disastrous nose dive. ”

“ Running an airplane is much easier than an automobile. Nerve? Not a bit of it. I tell you, Cousin Ann, when I get my flying machine I’ll come get you and ride you to my place and then you will be spared the bumps of that devilish lane. Just as soon as I get it I’ll drop you a line. Of course, old Billy can bring the carriage and horses up at his convenience. You are at Buck Hill now, I understand. I tell you, I’ll ’phone over just as soon as my airplane comes and you can get yourself ready for a flight. Be sure to wrap up warm and put something over your head. ”

“ I’d feel ashamed to go claiming relations with folks that didn’t even know I existed. I can’t see what makes you do it.”
“Oh, just for fun! You see we really and truly are kin. We are just as close kin as some of the people Cousin Ann Peyton visits, because you see she takes in anybody and everybody from the third and fourth generation of them that hate to see her coming. Yesterday in Louisville I looked up the family in some old books on the early history of Kentucky at the Carnegie Library and I found out a lot of things. In the first place the Bucks weren’t named for Buck Hill.” ”

“ A stable for Cupid and Puck, with plenty of good pasture land, a carriage house 217 for the coach, shared with Judith’s little blue car, but best of all, a house for himself!
“A house with winders an’ a chimbly an’ a po’ch wha’ I kin sot cans er jewraniums an’ a box er portulac! I been a dreamin’ ’bout sech a house all my life, Miss Judy. Sometimes when I is fo’ced ter sleep in the ca’ige, when Miss Ann an’ me air a visitin’ wha’ things air kinder crowded like, I digs me up a little flower an’ plants it in a ol’ can an’ kinder makes out my coachman’s box air a po’ch. ”

“ Judith had a slap-dash impressionistic manner of cooking all her own, following no rules or recipes, but with an unerring instinct that produced results. She said she cooked by ear. Whatever her method, the motormen were vastly pleased with the hot suppers she brought them and the word was passed that the pretty red-headed girl at the last stop before you got to Ryeville would furnish a basket supper at a reasonable figure and soon almost every man on the line was eager to become one of her customers. ”