Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/158

154 have callers when I seen that there Betsy a stirrin' up sumpen. Is all yo' folks well?"

"Grandfather was complaining of a little rheumatism," answered Rebecca.

"Too bad! Too bad!" said Aunt Peachy, but there was a malevolent gleam in her rat-like eyes. "He must be a gittin' ol'. I had a touch er rheumatiz myself goin' on thirty years ago, but I done outgrowed it. I mus' fix up a poultice fer the po' ol' man."

"Oh, thank you very much, but I doubt Grandfather's using it. He is so opposed to medicines and liniments."

"This here is a charm poultice I's gonter sen' him," insisted Aunt Peachy.

"Oh, you old crazy," broke in Jo. "Major Taylor ain't gonter touch your bad-smelling stuff with a ten-foot pole."

"But it is very kind of you," insisted Rebecca politely, looking at Jo reproachfully. "Where are the photographs you promised to show me, Jo?"

"Here they are, an' I printed off two for you, two of every kind. This is the way you looked when you peeped over the wall at me. The light wasn't so strong, but it is pretty good anyhow."

"Le' me see! Le' me see!" whimpered Aunt