when I saw a delegation coming down the street and turning into my front
gate; I rose to meet it with distinction.

Aunt Augusta marched at the head and Nell and Caroline were on each side
of her, while Sallie and Mamie Hall brought up the rear, walking more
deliberately and each carrying a baby, comparing some sort of white tags
of sewing. Cousin Martha was crossing the Road in their wake with her
knitting bag and palm leaf fan.

One thing I am proud of having accomplished this summer is the
establishing of friendly relations with Aunt Augusta. I made up my mind
that she probably needed to have some of my affection ladled out to her
more than anybody in Glendale, and I worked on all the volatile fear and
resentment and dislike I had ever had for her all my life, and I have
succeeded in liquefying it into a genuine liking for the martial old
personality. If Aunt Augusta had been a man she would have probably led
a regiment up San Juan Hill, died in the trenches, and covered herself
and family with glory. She is the newest woman in the Harpeth Valley,
and though sixty years old, she is lineally Sallie Carruthers's own
granddaughter.

"Evelina," she began, as soon as she had martialed her forces into
rocking-chairs, though she had Jasper bring her the stiffest and
straightest-backed one in the house, "I have collected as many women as
I had time to, and have come up here to tell you, and them, that the men
in Glendale are so lacking in sense and judgment that the time has come
for women to stand forth and assume the responsibility of them and
Glendale in general. As the wife of the poor decrepit Mayor, I appoint
myself chairman of the meeting pro tem and ask you to take the first
minutes. If disgrace is threatening us we must at least face it in an