“It’s the dress,” she exclaimed, all out of breath and her sweet little voice all a-tremble.  “Sister and me and Tucker were all baptized in it when we were babies.  Sister Viney has had me a-going through boxes and bundles for it ever since little Tucker was named for us, and here it is!  It’s hand-made and fine linen, brought all the way from New York down to the city in a wagon before the railroad run.  It’s all the present we have got for little Tucker, but we thought maybe—­” And Miss Amanda paused with a shy diffidence in offering her gift.

“Gracious me, Miss Amandy, they didn’t nothing ever happen to me like this little dress being gave to one of my children.  I am going to let him be named in it and then keep it in the box with my Bible, where it won’t be disturbed for nothing,” exclaimed Mrs. Poteet in a tone of voice that was tear-choking with reverence as she took the dainty yellow little garment into her hand.  “And to think how you all have wored yourself out a-looking for it!” she further exclaimed.

“Oh, me and Sister Viney have had a good time a-going through things; we haven’t seen some of them for thirty or forty years.  We found the flannel petticoat Ma was a-making for me when she died over forty-five years ago.  The needle is a-sticking in it, and I’m a-going to finish it to wear next winter.  I’ll feel like it is a comfort for my old age she just laid by for me.  I’ve got a little lace collar Ma’s mother wore when she come over from Virginy, and it’s in the very style now, so we’re going to bleach it out to give to Rose Mary.  Come on up to the house with me and see it and set with Sister Viney a spell, can’t you?  She’s got mighty sore joints this morning, though Rose Mary rubbed her most a hour last night” And in response to the eager invitation they all three went back up the front walk together.  The thrifty Mrs. Rucker cast a satisfied glance back towards her own side yard, where upturned tub and drying wash were in plain view.  Mrs. Poteet had put off the task of the wash until a later day of the week and thus could make her visit with a mind unharrassed by the vision of suds boiling over on the stove and soap melting in the tub.

And there ensued several hours of complete absorption for the four women closeted in Miss Lavinia’s room in reviewing the events of the last half century by means of the reminiscences which were inspired by one unearthed heirloom after another.  Pete and Shoofly were happy on the floor enveloping themselves and each other in long wisps of moth-eaten yarn that Miss Amandy had unearthed in a bureau drawer and donated to their amusement.  Mrs. Poteet had with her usual happy forgetfulness of anything but the very immediate occupation, lost sight of the fact that she had left young Tucker asleep on the bed in her room, which location, counting the distance across the two yards and down the Road, was at least slightly remote from aid in case of a sudden restoration to consciousness for the young sleeper.