"Said that Patty did housework in Hopkinton, and I believe could milk _seventeen_ cows to her one!"
"Oh," said Jessie, "how I wish I could milk. It's such fun. I did try once, but got the tiniest stream, and Walter said I'd dry the cows all up. I wish you could hear _him_ when he first begins. It sounds like hail stones rattling on the _tin pail_. Did yours sound so, grandma, and did you buy the pail of Mr. Gregory?"
Mrs. Reeves, by this time, began to think that Jessie might be making fun of her, and smothering her wrath, she proceeded:
"I shouldn't care anything about the housework or the milking, but I'll confess I _was_ shocked, when she spoke of----"
"I certainly am going to faint, Jessie, do go out," gasped the white figure in the rocking chair, while Jessie rejoined:
"I don't see how my going out can help you." Then crossing over to her grandmother, she whispered, "Brave it out. _Don't_ let her see that you care."
Thus entreated Mrs. Bartow became somewhat composed, and her tormentor went on:
"This Patty Lummis, Aunt Debby said, was blood relation to _three Thayers_, who were hung some years ago for murdering _John Love_, or some such name. I remember hearing of it at the time, but did not suppose I knew any of their relatives."
"Horrid!" cried Jessie, and then, as she saw how white her grandmother was, she added quickly:
"And didn't she say too, that the Gregorys _ought_ to have been hung if they weren't?"
"Such impertinence," muttered Mrs. Reeves, while Jessie rejoined:
"There are very few families, which, if traced to the fountain head, have not a halter, or a peddler's cart, or a smell of tallow, or shoemaker's wax----"
"Or a woollen factory, Jessie. Don't forget that," suggested Mrs. Bartow, and Jessie added, laughingly:
"Yes, a woollen factory, and as you and grandma do not belong to the few who are exempt from a stain of any kind, if honorable work can be called a stain, I advise you to drop old scores, and let the past be forgotten."
"I'm sure I'm willing," sobbed Mrs. Bartow. "I never did tell that ridiculous story to but one, and she promised not to breathe it as long as she lived."
"And will you take it back?" chimed in Mrs. Reeves.
"Ye-es. I'll do everything I can toward it," answered the distracted old lady. "I couldn't help those _Thayers_. I never saw them in my life, and they were only second cousins."