“I am sure you can,” declared Judith demurely, and Jeff thought happily how agreeable it was to have someone besides a father have such faith in his ability.
“You must come in and wait,” insisted Judith. “There is a fire in the dining-room. It is cold for September and a little fire towards evening is pleasant.” 245
Jeff entered the home of his newly claimed cousin with a feeling of some embarrassment. It seemed strange that he had lived on the adjoining farm all his early years and that this was the first time he had been in the Bucks’ house. There was a chaste New England charm about the dining-room that appealed to him. It was a fit background for the tall, white-haired old lady who was busily engaged in setting the table as the young people entered. She was smiling and humming a gay little minuet, as she straightened table mats and arranged forks and knives in exactly the proper relation to each other and the teaspoons.
Stooping and placing wood on the fire was an old negro man. His back was strangely familiar to Jeff and there was something about the lines of the white-haired old lady that made him stare. She was like Cousin Ann but couldn’t be she. Not only the snowy hair and the simple, straight skirt of her gown were not those of the lost cousin, but the fact that she was engaged in household duties was even more convincing of a case of mistaken identity. It was old Billy that had flashed through his mind, when he noticed the fire maker, but old Billy never engaged in any form of domestic labor any more than his mistress. 246
“Someone to see you, Cousin Ann,” said Judith, putting her arm around the old lady’s waist.
Jeff choked and gasped.
That evening the telephone wires were again kept hot by the Bucknors and their many kinsmen. Everybody who had been informed of Miss Ann’s being lost must be informed of her being found. Big and Little Josh drove over to Buck Hill to hear the story of Jeff’s discovery.
“And what were you doing at the Bucks’?” Big Josh asked Jeff.
“I was calling on Miss Judith. In fact, I had jumped off the trolley at that stop because I hoped she would be there,” said Jeff, his face flushing but his eyes holding a steady light as he looked into those of his father’s cousin. He even raised his voice a little so as to make sure that everyone in the room might hear him.
“Well, well!” exploded Big Josh. “You have beat me to it. I was planning to go to-morrow to call on our Cousin Judith Buck. You know she is our cousin, Jeff—not too close, but just close enough. She has been voted into the family when we sat in solemn conclave and now to think of her proving she 247 is kin before we had time to let her know of her election—prove it by taking poor Cousin Ann in and making her welcome! By jingo, she is a more worthy member of the clan than any woman we have in the family. I was all for taking her in because she is so gol darned pretty and up-and-coming. I must confess I wouldn’t have been so eager about it if she had been jimber-jawed and cross-eyed, but, by the great jumping jingo, I’d say be my long-lost cousin now if she had a wooden leg, a glass eye and china teeth!”