“Aunt Sue had cooked prairie chickens, pertaters, hed made hot bread ’n coffee, ’n fried bernanners, and opened can fruit, and brot out ther honey ‘nd two kinds o’ pickles, an’ ther supper war fine.

“Ther little woman praised it, gentle like, jest enough an’ not o’erdoin’ it, till Aunt Sue’s face war bigger’n a full mune, and filled with satisfaction ter ther very corners.

“All ther time ther lady kep talkin’ ‘bout Texas, askin’ questions, ’bout ther sile, ther climate, and ther productions, and in course I talked and did my best a-entertainin’ o’ her till nine o’clock, when she got up and sed she’d bid me good-night.

“Aunt Sue give her the best room, in course—­thet one beyond ther parlor.  Yo’ know I hed it furnished up kinder gorgus with a carpet from Shreveport, and spring bed and wash-stand and picters from Galveston, and I felt more satisfaction thinkin’ mout be she’d be comfortable, than I ever hed before since I’d fixed it up.

“When she war gone, I sed:  ‘Boys, but we is in fur it,’ but Aunt Sue spoke up, and says she:  ’Der am white folks and white folks; but dis one’s a born lady, sho.’

“And the cowboys said, ‘Shore,’ and I was shore myself.

“She war up and out d’rectly in the mornin’, fixed her own lunchen, talked clever a few words to Aunt Sue, petted ther dog a little, and asked him questions as though he’d been a kid; stopped on the way out ter tie up a rose bush, ’nd so she came and went ev’ry day, and though I didn’t realize it then, ther house war brighter when she war ther, and darker when she war gone.

“Once Aunt Sue hed fever from Friday ter Sunday night, and without any fuss thet thar woman did the cookin’, and doctored Sue as tho’ cookin’ ‘nd doctorin’ war her regular perfession.

“We found out after a little thet she war a widder, husband dead two year.

“After ’bout a week Aunt Sue says ter me one day:  ‘Mr. Jordan, yo’ jest cum har!’ I followed her ter the woman’s room.  Der yer believe it, she’d downed all ther flash picters that ther impenitent thief at Galveston hed coaxed me inter buyin’, and in place hed hung up some small engravins, not gaudy-like, but jest catchin’; hed taken’ off all the sassy trimmin’s from ther curtains, and the hull room war changed, just ez tho’ er benediction had been pernounced thar.  It war all kinder toned down, ez tho’ a woman hed slipped a gray ulster over a red frock.

“It made me feel kinder cheap like, and I sed ter myself, says I:  ’Thet’s good taste!’ I knowed it in er minit, tho’ I’d never seen it afore.

“Next Sunday in church we found out she could sing, and after thet she sung for us o’ nites, playing a gitaw same time.  Then arter awhile she got ter readin’ ter us.  Yo’ remember how yo’ read, Jim?  Well, yer readin’ war like a grand organ, hern were like ther blendin’ o’ flutes and harps.

“Well, ther weeks went by, and sech a feelin’ cum over me ez I’d never ’sperienced afore.  I thot first ‘twar hay fever comin’ on.  I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep.  I war restless when thet woman war gone.  I war skeery like when she war round; and war given to havin’ little hot spells and then chills, and I said, ‘I know it’s ther blasted malarier.’