“Of course!”
“Well, after dinner all of you ride out to Buck Hill and there wait on the poor old thing and together we can break the news to her. It’s going to make me feel awfully bad,” declared Mr. Bob Bucknor.
“I reckon we’ll all feel bad, but none of us must weaken,” blustered Big Josh. “And while we are discussing family matters, how about this talk about that pretty Miss Judith Buck being a cousin?”
“The women folk have settled that. At least mine have; and since we are the closest neighbors there at Buck Hill—” began Bob Bucknor.
“You may be the closest neighbors, but you are not the closest kin. I’m for taking her into the clan. By golly, we haven’t got too many pretty women in our family to be turning any down. I tell you, I’m going to call on her. Owe her a party call anyhow.” Thus rumbled Big Josh. 223
“Better not,” warned Mr. Bob Bucknor and then, since the clan were having dinner at the hotel where “you could” and a feeling of good cheer had begun to permeate the diners, Mr. Bucknor proceeded to tell the story, of course in the strictest confidence, about Tom Harbison and the milk can, all of which went to convince others beside Big Josh that Judith might prove a valuable acquisition to the family.
“I reckon she’s coped with worse than our women,” said Little Josh. “With poverty staring her in the face and old Dick Buck for a grandfather, she’s kept her head up and made a living and got a tidy bank account, so I hear. All by herself, too! I think I’ll call when you do, Big Josh, but I’ll fight shy of the milk cans.”
So it was voted that Judith was to be received into the family, Mr. Bob Bucknor making a mental reservation that he would not divulge the news to his wife and daughters until they were well out of Kentucky. He had strong hopes that European travel might soften the hearts of his daughters towards their pretty, red-haired cousin and neighbor.
“While we’ve got a little Dutch courage left, let’s go on out to Buck Hill and tackle Cousin Ann,” said Big Josh. “Now 224 remember, all at once and nobody backing out and coughing. Everybody speak up strong and all together.”
A handsome family of men they were, taken all in all—handsome and prosperous, good citizens, honorable, upright, courageous—but this thing of deliberately getting together to inform a poor old woman that no longer would their several homes be ready to receive her made them seem to themselves anything but admirable.