CHAPTER XXV
Uncle Billy Smiles
Judith stood on the platform, swinging her cooler of buttermilk as a signal to the six-thirty trolley to stop and be fed. Thanks to the help of Aunt Mandy and Uncle Billy she had been able to furnish dinners to the motormen and conductors all during the snows of winter and the rains of spring. It was June again, and a year since she began keeping what she called a basket boarding-house. It had proved a profitable business. At the same time she had the undying gratitude and admiration of her boarders.
The trolley stopped and eager hands relieved her of the basket and cooler. A young man swung from the platform of the rear car. Aunt Mandy had fried the chicken and Judith had not had to hurry to meet the six-thirty, so there was no excuse for the heightened color of her cheeks when she saw it was Jeff Bucknor.
“In time to carry your ‘empties’,” he said, 263 taking the basket from her. “Are you glad to see me?”
“Yes!”
“Very glad?”
“Yes, very glad!”
They followed the path through the beech grove. “Can’t we sit down a minute?” begged the young man. Judith complied. It was a venerable tree that sheltered them, with dense foliage on twisted limbs, the lower ones almost touching the ground.