FOLKS FROM DIXIE
was never weary of detailing accounts of their grandeur and generosity. What if some of the harshness of reality was softened by the distance through which she looked back upon them; what if the glamour of memory did put a halo round the heads of some people who were never meant to be canonised? It was all plain fact to Aunt Doshy, and it was good to hear her talk. That day she began:—
"I reckon I hain't never tol' you 'bout ole Mas' an' young Mas' fallin' out, has I? Hit 's all over now, an' things is done change so dat I reckon eben ef ole Mas' was libin', he would n't keer ef I tol', an' I knows young Mas' Tho'nton would n't. Dey ain't nuffin' to hide 'bout it nohow, 'ca'se all quality families has de same kin o' 'spectable fusses.
"Hit all happened 'long o' dem Jamiesons whut libed jinin' places to our people, an' whut ole Mas' ain't spoke to fu' nigh onto thutty years. Long while ago, when Mas' Tom Jamieson an' Mas' Jack Venable was bofe young mans, dey had a qua'l 'bout de young lady dey bofe was a-cou'tin', an' by-an'-by dey had a du'l an' Mas' Jamieson shot Mas' Jack in de shouldah, but Mas' Jack ma'ied de lady, so dey was eben.
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