“That whitish house back there among the trees,” said he, “with the green blinds, is called the Witton place.  The Wittons themselves are nuthin’ out o’ the common; but there’s an old lady lives there with ’em, who if you ever meet, you’ll know agin, if you see her agin.  Her name’s Panney,—­Miss Panney,—­and she’s a one-er.  What she don’t know about me, I don’t know, and what she won’t know about you, three days after she gits acquainted with you, you don’t know.  That’s the kind of a person Miss Panney is.  There’s a lot of very nice people, some rich and some poor, and some queer and some not quite so queer, that lives in and around Thorbury, and if you like it at Mrs. Brinkly’s and conclude to stay there any length of time, I don’t doubt you’ll git acquainted with a good many of ’em; but take my word for it, you’ll never meet anybody who can go ahead of Miss Panney in the way of turnin’ up unexpected.  I once had a sick hoss, who couldn’t do much more than stand up, but I had to drive him one day, ’cause my other one was hired out.  ‘Now’ says I, as I drew out the stable, ‘if I can get around town this mornin’ without meetin’ Miss Panney, I think old Bob can do my work, and to-morrow I’ll turn him out to grass.’  And as I went around the first corner, there was Miss Panney a drivin’ her roan mare.  She pulled up when she seed me, and she calls out, ‘Andy, what’s the matter with that hoss?’ I told her he was a little under the weather, but I had to use him that day, ’cause my other hoss was out.  Then she got straight out of that phaeton she drives in, and come up to my hoss, and says she, ’Andy, you ought to be ashamed of yourself to make a hoss work when he is in a condition like that.  Take him right back to your stable, or I’ll have you up before a justice.’  ‘Now look here, Miss Panney,’ says I, ’which is the best, for a hoss to jog a little round town when he ain’t feeling quite well, or for a man to sit idle on his front doorstep and see his family starve?’ ‘Now, Andy,’ says she, ‘is that the case with you?’ and havin’ brought up the pint myself, I was obliged to say that it was.  ‘Very good, then,’ said she, and she took her roan mare by the head and led it up to the curbstone.  ‘Now then,’ said she, ’you can take your hoss out of the cab and put this hoss in, and you can drive her till your hoss gets well, and durin’ that time I’ll walk.’

“Well, of course I didn’t do that, and I took my hoss back to the stable, and my family didn’t starve nuther; but I just tell you this to show you what sort of a woman Miss Panney is.”

“I should think she was a very estimable person,” said Mrs. Drane.

“Oh, there’s nothin’ the matter with her estimation,” said Andy.  “That’s level enough.  I only told you that to show you how you can always expect her to turn up unexpected.”

“Mrs. Brinkly spoke of Miss Panney,” said Cicely; “she said that she was the first one to come and see her about rooms for us.”