"But," Margaret persisted, "his father, the Jedge. What about him?"
"When he knows that all her people have been brave soldiers, he will call her his daughter."
"So glad," said Margaret, and then Jasper broke in.
"But what's the use of canvassin' now that all the returns air in. We all seed how the thing was a driftin' an' thar wan't no way to stop it even if we wanted to. That young feller is a man. I am proud of him, an' as Miz Mayfield says, he'll be proud of her."
Still Margaret was loth to leave off. "I'm so glad to know that you ain't disapp'inted."
"No one could be disappointed in her, Mrs. Starbuck. She has a strong character."
"So glad to have sich a estimate from one that knows the world."
"It is knowing something of the world that causes me to place so high a value upon her."
"Thar," said Jasper, "thank her ag'in an' then we'll begin at suthin' else."
Margaret begged of Mrs. Mayfield that she would pay no attention to Jasper, who was always so full of his pranks, and then to the old man she whispered: "Old Miz Barker was a passin' this mornin' an' she 'lows that the app'intment has come. Have you fixed everythin' at the mill?"